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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: John Powell <miltongeor@yahoo.com>
Date: Sat, 13 Feb 2016 18:13:27 +0000 (UTC)
Subject: Re: positive partnership.


Dearest, This is Captain John Powell, of The US Special operations forces, assign to dislodge the Strong Hold of the Islamic State (ISIS) in Iraq. On Thursday 22nd day of October, 2015. The Special Forces accompanied Kurdish units on a successful mission to rescue 70 prisoners from the Islamic State.  During the operation, we came across a way house full of deadly weaponry and two trunk boxes that contained cash estimated at 35 million united states dollars, there was a need to alert the authorities, alternatively my 3 other colleagues and I decided to keep the 2 trunk boxes to support the family of late Master Sgt. Joshua Wheeler who died in that same operation. Kindly keep this sensitive information to yourself if you are not willing to assist us to secure these two trunk boxes, since we are still in service. Do remember that our lives and that of our families are at stake for any disclosure of this sensitive information. Further details will be discuss upon your positive response and other necessary information will be given to you for the official claim.Capt. John Powell.    

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