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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: "Juan Manuel Vega-Serrano" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <jmvsrra@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 20 Jan 2017 21:48:13 +0100
Subject: HAPPY NEW YEAR! PLEASE CONFIRM

Hi Dear,
Compliment of the season. We write to notify you that part payment have been approved for your long overdue payment sum. This decision was made last week during an executive meeting with the new U.N Secretary-General Antonio Guterres after he was sworn in at U.N. headquarters where it was decided that all financial organization and all the Nations Central banks and financial institutes should pay all outstanding deposits including contract/ inheritance and goowill offers which has been held by Governments or banks due to beneficiary’s inability to meet up with high transfer charges.
Prior to this development, a woman by name (PAMELA TOLLEY) came to our office with an application stating that you gave her the power of attorney to be the beneficiary of your outstanding payment sum. She made us to believe that you are dead. We got your email address through our data base and decided to send an email through this address hoping to find out if you are dead or alive and also to find out if you are at any time gave this woman the power of attorney to represent you to receive your payment.
Please let us know immediately because we are waiting for your confirmation before we can approve the transfer of part payment for your outstanding funds to her nominated bank account as stated below:
Central National Bank
5400 Bosque Blvd, Waco, TX 76710, United States
Account Number 42052700131
Routing Number 101907197.
Beneficiary: PAMELA TOLLEY
Be informed that you are not allowed to correspond or contact any person or office with respect to this payment other than this office. If you are still alive, you should reconfirm your information below;
1) YOUR FULL NAME
2) YUOR ADDRESS
3) PERSONAL CELL PHONE, FAX NUMBER
4) DRIVERS LICENSE
 
Best regards,
Juan Manuel Vega-Serrano
The Financial Action Task Force
on Financial Crime and Money Laundering (FATF)

Anti-fraud resources: