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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: Mariam Abdul <mariabdu88@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 25 Aug 2017 21:35:04 -0700
Subject: Need your help

Hello, Special greetings to you, My name is Mariam Abdul, I am writing
this message to you with tears in my eyes. The on-going civil war in my
country Syria has affected my life so much. I lost my family last year.
My father was a rich business man before his death, he was doing oil &
Gas business, he made a big money $25.3 Million US Dollar, the money is
deposited with First Gulf Bank in Dubai, UAE, i am the next of kin but i
can not retrieve or return the money back to Syria because of the war
and killing in Syria now.

Please I need you to assist me receive the money and we can agree for
you to invest it, until I recover from my sickness and come over to meet
with you. I want to appoint you as my late father business partner and
the First Gulf Bank in Dubai will transfer the money to you. I will send
to you all the documents and information for deposit of the money.

Please let me know if you can do this for me, this is my real story,
please I need your help.
Regards,
Mariam Abdul

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