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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: "CHRISTOPHER A. WRAY" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <giftmrwee@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 30 Apr 2019 03:35:01 -0700
Subject: FBI Headquarters, Washington, D.C.

ATTENTION: BENEFICIARY
This e-mail has been issued to you in order to Officially inform you
that we have completed an investigation on an International Payment in
which was issued to you by International Lottery Company. With the help
of our newly developed technology (International Monitoring Network
System) we discovered that your e-mail address was automatically
selected by an Online Balloting System,this has legally won you the sum
of $4.8million USD from a Lottery Company outside the United States of
America.
During our investigation we discovered that your e-mail won the money
from an Online Balloting System and we have authorized this winning to be paid
to you via INTERNATIONAL CERTIFIED BANK DRAFT.
Normally, it will take up to 5 business days for an INTERNATIONAL
CERTIFIED BANK DRAFT by your local bank. We have successfully notified
this company on your behalf that funds are to be drawn from a registered
bank within the world winded, so as to enable you cash the check
instantly without any delay, henceforth the stated amount of $4.8million
USD has been deposited with IMF.
We have completed this investigation and you are hereby approved to
receive the winning prize as we have verified the entire transaction to
be Safe and 100% risk free, due to the fact that the funds have been
deposited with IMF you will be required to settle the following bills
directly to the Lottery Agent in-charge of this transaction whom is
located in Cotonou, Benin Republic.
According to our discoveries, you were required to pay for the
following,
(1) Deposit Fee's ( IMF INTERNATIONAL CLEARANCE CERTIFICATE )
(2) Shipping Fee's ( This is the charge for shipping the Cashier's
Check to your home address)
The total amount for everything is $96.00 We have tried our possible
best to indicate that this $96.00 should be deducted from your winning
prize but we found out that the funds have already been deposited to IMF
and cannot be accessed by anyone apart from you the winner, therefore
you will benrequired to pay the required fee's to the Agent in-charge of
this transaction
In order to proceed with this transaction, you will be required to
contact the agent in-charge ( MR. NICHOLAS MATTI ) via e-mail. Kindly
look below to find appropriate contact information:
CONTACT AGENT NAME: MR. NICHOLAS MATTI
PHONE NUMBER: +229995576491
Email= imfo37179@gmail.com
You will be required to e-mail him with the following information:
FULL NAME:
ADDRESS:
CITY:
STATE:
ZIP CODE:
DIRECT CONTACT NUMBER:
OCCUPATION:
You will also be required to request Western Union or Money Gram
details on how to send the required $96.00 in order to immediately ship
your prize of $4.8million USD via INTERNATIONAL CERTIFIED BANK DRAFT
from IMF, also include the following transaction code in order for him
to identify this transaction :EA2948-910.
This letter will serve as proof that the Federal Bureau Of
Investigation is authorizing you to pay the required $96.00 ONLY to MR.
NICHOLAS MATTI via information in which he shall send to you,
Yours in Service,Christopher A. Wray,
Director Office of Public Affairs, F B I

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