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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: "Lottery Dept" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <macmr066@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 28 Feb 2017 09:56:06 -0800
Subject: Face-book Group

We are pleased to inform you of the result that just concluded annual Final draws held on the( 2nd of Febuary 2017) by Facebook group in cash Promotion to encourage the usage of Facebook world wide Your JavaScript: void (0)your name was among the 5 Lucky winners who won $500,000.00USD (Five Hundred thousand united state dollars) each on the Facebook group promotion Award The online draws was Conducted by a random selection of name you where picked By an Advanced automated random computer search from the FacebookOur aimed at saying A BIG THANK YOU to all our users for making Facebook their number one means to connect, communicate, relate and hook up with their families and friends over the years. Get back to us so we can let you know the office to contact and claim your winning prize.

Anti-fraud resources: