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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: Margaret Williams <w1lliams.marg1@yandex.com>
Reply-To: w1lliams.marg@yandex.com
Date: Sat, 30 Nov 2019 06:18:51 -0600
Subject: Re: still waiting for your answer

Hello,

I hope you all are doing well. I have been wondering why you refused to respond to my mail. Does it mean you never received it or you intentionally decided not to respond? I am really confused. Anyway, I have no choice than to mail you anew as long as life permits me. In my previous mail, I was telling you about my deteriorating health condition that led me to a crucial decision which i exposed to you. It surprises me you did not respond up till now.

My fellow companion in faith, i have accepted the fate inputed to me, but before then, I would like to assign you with something which is very dear to me for a better management. I wish to entrust you with the necessary means which i secured for this purpose because i believe you are well positioned to make good use of it than any other. You might be thinking that i made a mistake, but believe me dear, i took time in prayers before coming up with this decision of contacting you for this project.

The reason behind this unimaginable decision is that for the past 2 years, I have been fighting against a throat cancer which occured few years after my husband's death, former executive director of an oil refinary in Abidjan, but got killed during the 2011 political crisis. We never had any child, but since then, I have been loosing all our acquired assets including lands and properties that got seized by the opposition and acting government. The only remaining assets in Cote d'Ivoire, before I was transferred to Ashton Private Hospital in Australia under a life insurance policy in September 2015, is our real estate which i had to abandon.

Since I have been admitted here in Australia, my health condition has been increasingly deteriorating to the point that recently i was diagnosed of lungs tumor at its terminal phase, for which, unfortunatelly, the doctor informed me that my days are numbered. I am therefore condemned. Since then, I have been restricted from phone calls limiting my communication with the outside world so as to economize energy. This is the main reason I finally decided, after a long period of prayers, to hand over to you, the accrued benefits of the real estate, for the realization of a social project for orphans and widows, rather than abandoning it to ungrateful relatives who consipred the killing of my husband, abandoning me in a hospital with my health condition, still loothing our properties with the complicity of the acting authorities.

The worth value of the real estate has been sealed and secured in a private financial institution there in Cote d'Ivoire where it was sold years ago; though for security reasons, it has not been disclosed by the financial institution, but you will be informed if you agree to help me settle the legal requests so that the funds will be made available to you for the purpose for which it was secured. I am now impotent 73 years old and not able to do much from here with my condition, but atleast, i can make available to you a letter of authorization as my next of kin to enable you act on my behalf. i will only need your full names, date and place of birth, address, country and profession, if possible, your phone number.

I will write it and send it to you along with  the contacts of my lawyer who will help you to prepare the change of assets ownership and also stand as your legal representative there in Abidjan to direct you on what to do for a successful transaction.

My regards to you and family.

Margaret Williams

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