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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: "URGENT" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <dy31592@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 5 Aug 2016 02:49:21 +0530
Subject: TREAT AS MATTER OF URGENCY

Greetings
 
I am Mr. David Young, the head of Accounts and Audit Department of Metro bank.I personally discovered a dormant account with a total sum of ($35.5 Million Dollars) during our Bank's Annual Year Account Auditing.
 
The owner of this dormant account died on 6th May 2007. Since the death of the deceased, nobody has operated in this account till date. Moreover, this account has NO BENEFICIARY attached to it. Definitely, this fund will be confiscated by our BANKING CODE OF ETHICS if it remains dormant for a period of (7) years without any claims.
 
In this regard, I earnestly need your full cooperation in transferring this dormant fund out of our bank to avoid confiscating this fund.
 
If you are willing to cooperate in this project, I will give you details immediately as soon as I hear from you in order to proceed.
 
Please note that you are required to keep it very confidential. Contact me through my private email: dy31592@gmail.com
 
Yours truly,
 
Mr. David Young.

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