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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.

Click here to report a problem with this page.

 

 

Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

Fraud email example:

From: "Bernie Madoff" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <bbmadoff@yopmail.com>
Date: Tue, 24 Oct 2017 13:29:34 -0700
Subject: I NEED YOUR HELP NOW!

Hello Dear
 
I am Bernie Madoff the founder of wall street firm Bernard L. Madoff investment securities LLC in 1960 and was the former chairman of NASDAQ. I was accused of fraud worth over $65 billion dollars and was arrested on Dec 11,2008 and on march 12,2009.I pleaded guilty to 11 federal crimes and admitted to operated the largest ponzi scheme in history, I am currently in Butner federal prison outside Durham, North Carolina, serving a 150-year sentence, I regret a lot of my mistakes and I want to make amends with the remaining days i have left, giving the people back what I stole from them.
 
Let me not go into many details. I have Millions of Euros in offshore financial house, This money nobody knows about it except my bank officers because the money was deposited under serial codes. I need your help right now not only to reinvest the money.50% will go to charity and 20% will be mapped out for the promotion of gospel and building of churches and mosques all over the world and 25% for you while 4% goes to the bank officials who will help you facilitate the transaction and 1% for my up keeping in the prison and I know that I will die soon because of my heart attack and kidney cancer. Ruth my wife will not come and visit or talk to me my two sons, Mark committed suicide in 2010, and Andrew died of cancer in 2014. I want to die knowing that i have touch life and make a difference please I want this business to be completed as soon as possible.
 
Kind respect
Bernie Madoff
bbmadoff@yopmail.com

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