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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: "Mrs. Caroline" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <mrs.carolinefreund@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 16 Nov 2017 07:01:10 -0800
Subject: LET'S APPLY

Greeting from United Kingdom,

The internet has been grossly abused by scam artist and miscreants whose intention is to hurt. In as much as one should be careful, same time we should not allow negative to kill the positive potential in a realistic business, please read my proposal carefully is 100% Risk-free.

My name is Mrs. Caroline the Branch manager of Cahoot Bank here in the UK; I am married with three children. I am writing this letter to ask for your support and co-operation to carry out this business opportunity in my department. After annual audit Last month in my branch I discover documents of a late client Mr Paul Louis Halley A French business magnate who made a numbered fixed deposit with this branch valued $8M (Eight Million United State Dollars,) and I was lucky to have the scan documents with me in save position. I discovered from his contract employers, the Petroleum Corporation that Mr Paul Louis Halley, his wife, their 2 children and other passengers on board died in the plane crash on the 07 Dec 2003 as you can confirm it yourself via the website below for (BBC NEWS:

http://newswww.bbc.net.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/oxfordshire/4537663.stm

According to United Kingdom banking law after the expiration of 14 (fourteen ) years, if nobody apply for the claim his abandoned money with my bank, the money is going to be confiscated as state treasury if nobody apply for the claim and I do not want that to happen. Therefore, I am seeking for your support as a next of kin/ beneficiary for you and i to claim these funds so that we move it into useful investments, I am ready to share with you 40% for you and 60% will be kept for me, You will provide offshore account where the funds will be transferred to and this is the reason while I am contacting you because I cannot claim the funds alone because I am currently working with the bank. For more information; I want you to please contact me on my private e-mail account: caro11119@yahoo.com

When you contact me, I will give you more information.

Mrs. Caroline

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