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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: Sophia Young <sophia.young002@gmail.com>
Reply-To: Sophia Young <sophiayoung43@yahoo.com>
Date: Sat, 5 Dec 2015 11:15:37 +0900 (JST)
Subject: FROM SOPHIA


Hello Dear

My name is Sophia Young, i am an orphan child that needed assistance from you; i came from the family of Mr. and Mrs. Alex Young. My late father has GOLD & DIAMOND EXPORT COMPANY, but it is sad to say that my father was poisoned to death by unknown enemies while my mother died of cancer illness when i was 12 years old.

I am 21 years old girl a university undergraduate, since the death of my parents, i dropped out from school because of financial difficulties and i have no family to belong to and nobody to run to that can be of help and assistance for my being, because my late father relations has claimed everything that my late fathers has except the inheritance fund that non of them knows about. Currently i am in the apartment my late parents rented here in the capital city before they died, and the house rent will expire by  December 30th 2015, and i don't have money to continue paying for the rent any more as soon as it got expired.

The main reasons why i contacted you is to reveal this secrete to you and believing that you could be a God fearing some one to help me. I need your kind assistance to retrieve the fund that my late father deposited in a FINANCE firm before he died and to take this fund on my behalf to a place much more discrete and stable in your country where I can join you for investment and continuation of my educational Career which was disrupted by the sudden death of my parents.

I am in possession of all the legal documents covering the deposit sum of ($6,000,000.00) Six Million US Dollar that was deposited in the FINANCE firm by my later father. So can you honestly help me in this project? Can I completely trust you? If i can trust you in this regards, can you get me a good school for the continuation of my education?

If you could be honest to assist me in this project, I will be pleased to offer you 20% out of the total money. Hope we agree on this percentage? Kindly consider my situation as that of an orphan and come to my aid. I will be waiting to hearing back from you soon for more details.

Sincerely Yours
Sophia

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