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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.

Click here to report a problem with this page.

 

 

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

Fraud email example:

From: DonaldTaylor
Reply-To: <mr.donaldtaylor@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 27 Nov 2015 17:32:32 +0200
Subject: my subject


Attention: Proposed Partner, My name is Mr. Donald Taylor, I am writing to=
seek your co-operation over this business proposal, Am the chief Financial=
Officer with a well-known bank here in South Africa. First i must solicit =
your confidence in this transaction; this is by virtue as being utterly con=
fidential and top secret. Though I know that a transaction of this magnitud=
e will make any one apprehensive and worried. My contacting you is based on=
a secret discovery of a dormant account with a total sum of $ 77,000,000.0=
0 USD during our Bank's Annual Year Account Auditing. It will be in my inte=
rest to work and finish this transaction with you. If you can be a collabor=
ator to this transaction, the banking law and guideline here stipulates tha=
t if such money remained unclaimed after three years, the money will be tra=
nsferred into the Bank treasury as unclaimed fund. Most importantly, you wi=
ll be required to; (1). Act as the original beneficiary of the funds. (2). =
Receive the funds into a business/private bank account. (3). At the complet=
ion of this transaction, the sharing rates shall be 60% for me, 35% for you=
while 5% will be used after the conclusion of the transaction, to settle a=
ll foreign expenses made from both end in respect to the securing of the fu=
nds. You are not to face any difficulties or legal implications as I will s=
ecure all the vital documents needed in this transaction. Please indicate y=
our positive interest immediately for us to proceed if not please ignore, r=
emember this is absolutely confidential because my Bank does not know about=
it. Get back to me for more details on this private email account; mr.dona=
ldtaylor@gmail.com Thanks for Your Cooperation. Warmest regards, Mr. Donald=
Taylor Chief Financial Officer=20

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