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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: "Captain Paquette James" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <paquettejames@usa.com>
Date: Wed, 2 May 2018 14:38:30 -0000
Subject: FWW:DEAR FRIEND PLEASE I NEED YOUR HELP

Dear Friend,
 
      Please am writing this letter to you because i have no other choice, firstly my name is Captain Paquette James, from Morton Grove, Illinois United States. I am an American Citizen currently serving in Afghanistan. I’m 48yrs old and I am an only child of both parents. My dad was a US marine before he passed away. My mom was a stay at home mom and she passed away in October 1st 2007. I believe life is full of opportunities if only we have a heart of understanding and trust toward one another i also i have faith that soon i will be back home and we can know each other better but i really do need your help now, trust me this proposal will not get you into any such of problem I want you to help me receive a consignment (Boxes).
 
The reason is that we are being attacked by insurgents everyday and car bombs daily here and during one of our rescue mission we came across a safe box that contain huge amount of money that belongs to the supporters of the over thrown government of Iraq, which I believe was money meant for buying weapons and ammunition to the Islamic terrorist groups such as Taliban, Al-Qaeda, ISIS, etc  and it was agreed by all Army officers present on that rescue mission that the money will be shared among us and which we did and returned the rest to the government i have picture and prove of this deep secret out of the total fund my share was $7,560,000.00 ( Two Million Five Hundred and Sixty Thousand united states Dollars) I am seeking your assistance to evacuate my share of the money out of this country (Iraq) to your own country for you to keep it safe on my behalf till i come over to your country so far i have survived two bomb attack here, which prompted me to search out for a reliable and trust worthy person t
 
It clear to me that you might be scared of this proposal, but i want to let you know that i have made solid arrangements with DELIVERY SERVICE AND SECURITY COMPANY'' and they have promised to deliver the consignment boxes through diplomatic method to any of my choosing destination.
 
I have decide to compensate you with 25% of the total money once after the money is delivered to you, while the rest balance shall be my investment capital in your country. One passionate appeal i will make to you is not to discuss this matter to a third party, if you do not want to be party to this business please delete, this letter from your email box to avoid any leakage of this information and it will be dangerous to me based on my position here I hope my explanation is very clear to you but if you need further clarification just let me know and i will explain further. I want to let you know that here in the military zone we are not allow to make use of mobile phone, we only make use of radio message and email communication so please let us continue communicating through email for the mean time.
 
Conclusively, I wish you could send me a reply immediately in regards to this proposal, your urgent reply will be highly appreciated. I Wait to receive your acceptable reply as soon as you read this letter.
 
Thank you
Capt James

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