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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: Mrs Tessy Mel <ellamel67@yahoo.com>
Reply-To: mrstesymel@yahoo.com
Date: Thu, 29 Oct 2015 23:48:40 GMT
Subject: PLEASE HELP ME.

Dear God's elect,

Good day and compliments of the seasons, i know this letter will definitely come to you as a huge surprise, it all just my urgent needs for a foreign partner that made me to contact you for this transaction for the work of God. but I implore you to take the time to go through it carefully as the decision you make will go off a long way to determine my future and continued existence. I am Mrs. Tessy Mel aging widow of 64 years old suffering from long time illness. I have some funds I inherited from my late husband, the sum of ($7,200,000.00 Million Dollars) and I needed a very honest and God fearing who can withdraw this money then use the funds for Charity works. I WISH TO GIVE THIS FUNDS TO YOU FOR CHARITY WORKS. I found your email address from the internet after honest prayers to the LORD to bring me a helper and i decided to contact you if you may be willing and interested to handle these trust funds in good faith before anything happens to me.

I am sending this message to you praying that it will reach you in good health, since I myself are not in good health condition in which I sleep every night without knowing if I may be alive to see the next day. I am suffering from long time cancer and presently i am partially suffering from a stroke illness which has become almost impossible for me to move around. I am married to my late husband for over 25 years before he died and is unfortunately that we don’t have a child, my doctor confided in me that i have less chance to live. Having known my health condition, I want you to use this money for Charity organizations, orphanages, Moreover, my husband relatives are not close to me since I develop a cancer problem and it had been their wish to see me dead in order to inherit his wealth since we have no Child.

I accept this decision because I do not have any child who will inherit this money after I die. I want your urgent reply to me so that I will give you the deposit certificate which the BANK issued to me as next of kin for immediate transfer of the money to your account in your country, to start the good work of God, I want you to use the 40/percent of the total amount to help yourself in doing the project. I am desperately in keen need of assistance and I have summoned up courage to contact you for this task, you must not fail me and the millions of the poor people in our todays WORLD. This is not stolen money and there are no dangers involved, 100% RISK FREE with full legal proof. Please if you would be able to use the funds for the Charity works kindly let me know immediately. I will appreciate your utmost confidentiality and trust in this matter to accomplish my heart desire, as I don't want anything that will jeopardize my last wish. Any delay in your reply may give me room to look for another good person for this same purpose. Please assure me that you will act accordingly as I stated herein. I don't need any telephone communication in this regard because of my ill-health. Please kindly respond quickly for further details.

Thanks and Remain blessed,
Mrs. Tessy Mel

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