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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: "Austin A. Duke"
Reply-To: <anthonyduke6@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 21 Dec 2015 18:46:22 -0500
Subject: Contact Me Immediately

Hello Friend,

I'm a personal attorney to an foreign national and a consultant with Mercuria Oil & Gas firm, (Now deceased) He passed away in the china earthquake in 2008. Years ago, He successfully executed a contract here worth Eighteen Million Three Hundred Thousand dollars. A part payment of Nine million dollars was paid to my client, while the balance of Nine million Three Hundred Thousand Dollars was still unpaid before he died in the sichuan china earthquake on his vacation. Until his sudden demise, He was not married and was 38 years.

The new elected Government has fully paid all out standing balance of foreign contractors who have successfully executed their contracts and my client is among those benefited in this first quarter payment schedule which has already been deposited in his bank. His bank has officially notified me to forward particulars of my client's existing relative with notarized papers within the next 14 working days so that he/she can be paid the outstanding Nine Million Three Hundred Thousand dollars otherwise his payment will be diverted to the government coffers account as unclaimed bill.

Since all my efforts has been unsuccessful to locate any of his relatives since 2008, I decided to contact you for a deal so that we can work together as a team to approve the money to you as my client next of kin since I do not want to seat back and watch my client hard earned entitlement to go astray.

Once I hear from you we shall discuss more of the details and the sharing ratio of the fund. kindly reply strictly with your personal Telephone number for effective communication and oral clarification on how to proceed.

Sincerely yours,
Austin A. Duke

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