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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: EDWARD THOMAS <upsdeliverycompany2018@gmail.com>
Reply-To: head65909@gmail.com
Date: Fri, 26 Feb 2021 14:57:25 +0100
Subject: YOUR ATM VISA CARD PAYMENT NOTIFICATION BY DHL COURIER.

YOUR ATM VISA CARD PAYMENT NOTIFICATION BY DHL COURIER.

I’m Mr.EDWARD THOMAS, the new appointed Postman of Regular DHL
courier Company branched at United State. I resumed this office on
22d, febuary, 2021. On going through the files of the previous records
of this office, I discovered that there are six parcels containing ATM
cards each one attached with an email address of the owner on it. The
former appointee of this office (Alhaji Abudulahi Musa Jr.) failed to
carry out the delivery as it was instructed and programmed. Probably,
one of his reasons for not carrying out the delivery was that you have
not provided your postal address to him for the completion of the
delivery as he remarked.

According to the content recorded in each file, the ATM card was
deposited by one Senior Evangelist Mathew Peterson who died one year
back as a charity foundation parcel to each of the six of you. On the
statement he wrote on the list, he stated that each of the
aforementioned ATM cards contains the sum of US$17.500,000.00 (TEN
MILLION FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND UNITED STATES DOLLARS) on your name and
he found your email contacts as reputable and capable persons that can
use the charity awarded ATM Cards to change the lives of people.

Meanwhile, I've made the arrangement of posting the six parcels
through Regular DHL courier to the six of you to your respective
mailing addresses.

Am also sending the same message of the same content to six of you
that own the six abandoned ATM CARDS each at the same time. If found
in spam folder, it could be due to your Internet Service Provider,
ISP. So move to your inbox before your reply.

I went to our head office at United State in florida and reported the
issue of the discovered six ATM cards in my office and they verified
it and gave me the veto order to carry out the delivery immediately
you reconfirm your mailing address to this office in order for us to
mail the ATM CARD directly to you after Postal Stamp of the parcel.
Note, below information is officially needed for posting of the ATM
CARD ASAP.

YOUR FULL NAME.....................
YOUR ADDRESS.......................
YOUR AGE...........................
YOUR SEX...........................
YOUR CITY..........................
YOUR STATE.........................
YOUR COUNTRY.......................
YOUR HOME PHONE....................
YOUR CELL PHONE....................
Your occupation....................
Your passport id...................
Your postal code...................
Nearest Airport....................

We shall post your ATM Card once you update us with the above info and
you shall be given a tracking number, that is, the Track and Trace
number of your parcel once it is posted to your mailing address, so as
to enable you track your parcel to know exactly when it will arrive to
your mailing address.

Remain blessed as I'll be looking forward to receiving your immediate respond.

Regards,
EDWARD THOMAS
Postman,Regular DHL courier united state

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