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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: "Anthony Lucas" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <anthonylucas44444@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 5 Jan 2016 14:03:45 +0200
Subject: HAPPY NEW YEAR MY DEAR FRIEND!!

Attention:Beneficiary

It was resolved and agreed last week at the bank head quarter that your inheritance fund would be release to you on a special method of payment Tag name read swift credit card This card center will send you an ATM CARD which you will use to withdraw your fund in an ATM MACHINE in any part of the world, the maximum you can withdraw is ($10,000.00-$20,000.00)
Thousand Us Dollars per transaction until you make the whole withdrawal.

Secondly, you are hereby adviced to stop dealing with some non-officials of the bank as this is an illegal act and will have to stop if you so wish to receive your payment immediately.After the board meeting held at our headquarters, we have resolved in finding a solution to your problem, and as you may know, we have arranged your payment through our SWIFT CARD
PAYMENT CENTRE in Europe, America,Africa and Asia Pacific.

The machine will also include a display screen, function buttons (usually placed near the screen and covering the functions of saying "yes," "no," and "cancel"), a printer and a cash drawer. Depending on the ATM, it may also provide envelopes for deposits and security cameras.

The ATM card is a little less dangerous if you lose it, since nobody can use it to drain your account without your PIN (personal identification number). Also, most banks limit the amount of cash that can be withdrawn every day on an ATM card

(1) Your Full Name
(2)Address where you want the payment centre to send your ATM CARD.
(3) Phone Number.

We shall be expecting to receive your information, you have to stop any further communication with anybody or office apart from this office. On this regards, do not hesitate to contact me for more details and direction, and also please do update me with any new development

Thanks for your co-operation.
Best Regards,
Anthony Lucas

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