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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: "Zachlod" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <stefkaruse2016@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 8 Apr 2016 07:07:37 +0900
Subject: ASAP,PLEASE

>From The Desk of Mr. Stefan Krause Email:stefkaruse2016@gmail.com Good day, I am Stefan Krause, I trained and work as an external auditor and also Chief Financial Officer for Deutsche Bank. Working as part of a bigger team, which covers the entire Europe region, An estate was placed under my management some years ago by a customer who is now deceased. I need your assistance in investing these funds. Do you know that the Treasury swallow over $ 200M every year from unclaimed estates for this reason I contacted you privately to reconcile an estate believe to have strong link to you as the beneficiary due to your name. To affirm your willingness and cooperation to my proposal Please get back to me immediately via Email as above stating your interest to assist and i will give you the full details.. Your prompt response will be highly appreciated. Regards, Mr. Stefan Krause

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