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"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam

The so-called "419" scam is a type of fraud dominated by criminals from Nigeria and other countries in Africa. Victims of the scam are promised a large amount of money, such as a lottery prize, inheritance, money sitting in some bank account, etc.

Victims never receive this non-existent fortune but are tricked into sending their money to the criminals, who remain anonymous. They hide their real identity and location by using fake names and fake postal addresses as well as communicating via anonymous free email accounts and mobile phones.

Keep in mind that scammers DO NOT use their real names when defrauding people.
The criminals either abuse names of real people or companies or invent names or addresses.
Any real people or companies mentioned below have NO CONNECTION to the scammers!

Read more about such scams here or in our 419 FAQ. Use the Scam-O-Matic to verify suspect emails.

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Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

Fraud email example:

From: Carlos
Reply-To: <carlos.s.helu1@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 3 Oct 2015 06:13:56 -0700
Subject: GOOD NEWS


GREETINGS, My name is Carlos Slim Helu, A philanthropist the CEO and Chairm=
an of the Carlos Slim Helu Foundation Charitable Foundation, one of the lar=
gest private foundations in the world. I believe strongly in =91giving whil=
e living=92 I had one idea that never changed in my mind =97 that you shoul=
d use your wealth to help people and i have decided to secretly give {$2,50=
0,000.00} Two Million Five Hundred Thousand United Dollars, to randomly sel=
ected individuals worldwide. On receipt of this email, you should count you=
rself as the lucky individual. Your email address was chosen online while s=
earching at random. Kindly get back to me with your full address at your ea=
rliest convenience, so I know your email address is valid. Visit the web pa=
ge to know more about me: http://www.bornrich.com/carlos-slim-helu.html or =
you can Google me ( Carlos Slim Helu ) contact me at this email id (carlos.=
s.helu1@gmail.com) . Regards, Carlos Slim Helu.=20

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