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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:
Reply-To: "Mr. Ronald Marcum" <ronaldmarcum60@gmail.com>
Date:
Subject: Notice from US Postal Service!!!





Greetings!

This mail is coming to you from the office of Postmaster General United States Postal Service (USPS), We have been waiting for you to contact us for your parcel that has been registered with us for shipment to your residential address, we thought that the sender gave you our contact details, It may interest you to know that a letter was also added to your parcel.
However, we cannot quote the content to you via mail for privacy reasons.
We understand that the content of your parcel itself is a money order worth $3.5 million USD, $1,000.00 US Dollars for each money order copy all in (2) two envelopes,

Get back to us with the below details as soon as you get this mail for reconfirmation and immediate fund release:
Your full name__
Home address__
Telephone number__
A scan copy of your ID card.

NOTE: You may receive our message in your spam box,
depending on your system mailbox settings and you are advised to follow every
information here confidential and serious.

Yours comrade,
Mr. Ronald Marcum
Office Address 5675 CAROLINA BEACH RD WILMINGTON, NC 28412-3629
US Postal Service.

Anti-fraud resources: