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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: "SAMSON POTTER" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <potter11110000@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 18 Jul 2018 01:38:38 +0100
Subject: Please read carefully before answering !

Federal Reserve Bank of New York
33 Liberty Street
New York, NY 10045

Dear Beneficiary,

IMMEDIATE CONTRACT PAYMENT. CONTRACT #: 3/20-NY/UN/FRB/MIN/018.

>From the records of outstanding contractors due for payment with the Federal Reserve Board (FRB), Your name was discovered as next on the list of the outstanding contractors who have not received their payments.

I wish to inform you that your payment is being processed and will be released to you as soon as you respond to this letter. Also note that from the record in my file, your outstanding contract payment is US$8,000,000.00.

However, we have received a notice of Change of Account from your representative Mr. Julius Fletcher yesterday. In respect to account received from him, we wish to confirm with you before we proceed with the transfer of your contract fund to the new account he provided.

The transfer will take place immediately you confirm the authenticity new bank account information provided by Mr. Julius Fletcher.

I demand an urgent response from you to enable us proceed with the transfer.

Yours Truly,

Mr. Samson Potter

Remittance Director,
Federal Reserve Bank (FRB)

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