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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: belen watson <watsonbelen3@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 4 Nov 2017 09:32:04 +0000
Subject: Beloved One, Compliments of the day to you!

Beloved One,
Compliments of the day to you! By this e-mail, I do sincerely
apologise for my intrusion of your privacy. However, I have a serious
concern with which I believe you might be of help and for this reason
I decided to e-mail you believing in my faith that you will handle
this issue with sincere mind.I am Mrs Belen Drilon Watson , I'm
married to Mr Frankyln D Watson Please I am contacting you to let you
know my desire to establish a charity foundation in your country with
some amount of dollars ( $ 6
millions united state dollars ) which I inherited from my late husband
(Mr. Franlyn D Watson) This money have been deposited in a bank in a
country in west africa cote d'ivoire under a secret arrangement as a
charity fund. It is also my desire to see that this money is invested
to anycharity organization of your choice in your country and
distributed each year among the charity organizations, motherless
baby’s home, mosques, churches, Schools, supporting destitute aged men
and women or
whatever you may have in mind that will be to the benefit of the less
fortunate.I took this decision because I was raised from a motherless
baby’s home and presently, I'm hospitalized here in London where I am
undergoing treatment for my up coming throat cancer surgery operation.
Please reply as soon as possible to confirming your acceptance to this
proposition so that I will give you all the relevant information that
will authorise the release and transfer of the fund to you as my duly
assigned representative.Thank you in advance for your understanding
and I look forward hearing from you urgently. Warm regards,
Mrs. Belen D Watson

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