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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: "SAFIYA" <safs12@hotmail.com>
Date: Mon, 05 Oct 20 04:44:16 GMT
Subject: HELLO.

Dear friend, Greetings from Libya, I am the wife of the ex-Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Qadhafi, the former and late leader of Libya Colonel Muammar Qadhafi who was betrayed and embattled by Libyan and murdered by the Libyan rebels which led to his untimely death. Since then, me and my children has been on travel ban, no access to bank accounts and we have been rendered homeless and at the same time we are under threat and we are not allowed to invest or operate bank account. I wrote this letter because I need you to help me to secure some of my family funds that is deposited by my late husband in different security companies abroad which is no longer safe under the name of my late husband therefore I urgently need your help to transfer the amount to your bank account and ones we start, first, the beneficiary name should be immediately changed from my late husband name to your name through my lawyers. I promise to make you richer by offering you 30% of the total amount that can be secured through your help and in each transactions successfully completed by you and if you can assist me, we must work in confidentiality therefore I want you to please keep this as a greater secret. In your response, I want you to provide me with your particulars as listed below because it will be used by my lawyers to make change of ownership of funds to your name: 1) Your full name. 2) Home or office Address. 3) Land Telephone and mobile phone numbers. 4) Your Age. 5) Your gender/Sex. 6) Your Occupation. 7) Any form of Identification. ======================= Please contact me on my secure email address: safqad203@gmail.com Yours sincerely, Mrs.Safiya Qadhafi.

Anti-fraud resources: