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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: "MR.CHRISTOPHER WRAY III" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <jamesb.comey.fbi_securiitywatchs@hotmail.com>
Date: Sun, 13 Oct 2019 18:15:58 +0100
Subject: Attention Beneficiary

FBI Headquarters
935 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
h
Washington, D.C. 20535-0001
 
The FBI uses both its cyber and criminal resources along with its intelligence capabilities to identify and stop crime groups in their early stages and to root out the many types of perpetrators.
 
By virtue of the authority vested in me as the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in order to provide and supervision management of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to ensure a full and thorough investigation of your winnings which we have carried out has our duties and obligations.
 
we would like you to know that your Facebook lottery winnings is 100% legit and through our surveillance we taped and track your email and phone conversation to know you are dealing with the wrong people which are impostors trying to swag your money and get away, Please note that the right and legal office to contact is official James Wells ( james4carl@gmail.com )  and He was instructed by Facebook, Inc./CEO Mark Zuckerberg  which all payment will be confirmed for your Facebook lottery winnings to be released to you in the next 24 to 48 hours after the mandatory fees 250$ for the yellow tag and insurance security fees, should be paid for the immediate release of your ATM card parcel with the sum of a million dollars.
 
We would like you to get back to us with every correspondence involved in your transactions with Facebook lottery commission boards and makes sure you update  every activities that you think it’s unusual to your winnings.
 
“I wanted to be an independent person, a person who could pay bills, a person who could run her own life - and I became that person”
 
You can be that person if you take a step to your success and get your winnings with the right office.
 
Christopher Asher Wray
FBI Headquarters
935 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20535-0001

Anti-fraud resources: