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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: "Pitas Coleman" <zimbra@ieci-servicios.com>
Reply-To: pitascoleman@post.com
Date: Mon, 03 Sep 2018 08:34:34 -0700
Subject: PLEASE I NEED YOUR HELP

Hello,

Before I proceed, I must first apologize for this unsolicited letter to you. I am aware that this is certainly not a conventional way of approach to establish a relationship of trust.

My purpose of contacting you is for you to help secure the funds left behind by my late client, to avoid it being confiscated or declared unserviceable by the Bank

The Bank has issued me a notice to contact the next of kin or the account will be declared unserviceable and the fund diverted to the Bank treasury, So far all my efforts to get a hold of someone related to my client has proved abortive. Hence, I have contacted you. I am actually asking for your consent to present you to the Bank as the Next of Kin/beneficiary of my late client's fund, so that the proceeds of this account can be paid to your account.

All the legal documentations to back up your claim as my client's Next of Kin shall be provided . All I require is your honest cooperation to enable us achieve this transaction.

The intended transaction will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that will protect you and me from any breach of the law. However, if this business proposal offends your moral ethics, do accept my sincere apology.

If on the contrary you wish to achieve this goal with me, kindly get back to me with your interest for further explanations.
You can contact me via email: pitascoleman@post.com

Anti-fraud resources: