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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: "Melinda" <gusgriffiths09@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 09 Jul 2018 17:13:53 -0700
Subject: Hello


Hello,

Please is it okay to communicate in English?

My name is Melinda Angeles am a Syrian woman. I desire to relocate to your =
country due to the
prolonged civil unrest/war in Syria, as well as the daily
life-threatening attacks by ISIS terrorist group. I've already lost my
family, my husband and daughter to the cold hands of death during an
attack targeted to end our family. I and my son were not around during
the cross fire. we were at the hospital for checkup when the attacked
our home killing my beloved husband and my daughter and setting the
house ablaze. I am in tears writing you this mail. He (my late
husband) was a very successful contractor in the oil city of Syria and
was privately dealing on gold dust and bars before his untimely death.
Expectedly, he left behind some reasonable amount of money, which I
desire to invest in the Real Estate sector, Travel & Tourism, Hotel
Management and other interesting sectors in your country.

As you may or may not know, the sanctions imposed by the United States
and the European Union have made it nearly impossible to successfully
operate any type of investment here in Syria or to even transfer money
from here to other parts of the world. For this reason, I am
contacting you in great confidence with the hope that you could help
me get this money into your country for investment purposes:

Please I would like to know how convenient it might be for you to
assist me in this way. The entire capital at my disposal is Eight
Million Euro. I secretly locked up the money in a trunk box and
deposited it with the Red Cross here in Damascus. My sincere intention
in writing you is to plead with you to kindly accept the money box.
This is because we cannot do any bank transfers from here following
the war. These are the major issues of concern to me now. I will give
you 30% of the total money as your benefit for helping me.

I have to take this chance because I have no other alternative but to
trust somebody. I cannot risk my life here to avoid an end to my
family lineage. As a woman, since my husband and daughter are dead,
all I have is my only son. He deserves a decent life since I want him
to grow up in a peaceful environment. I will relocate to Latvia with
my son and invest the money in accordance with law, your advice and
support; we can work together and achieve.

I anticipate your positive response and on receipt of your information
I will provide you with further details.

Yours faithfully,
Melinda,
..Sent from iphone.

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