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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. Bill Lawrence" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <billlawrences@hotmail.com>
Date: Sun, 24 Apr 2022 05:59:45 -0700
Subject: My Intent Mr. Bill Lawrence

Greetings,
 
I am Mr. Bill Lawrence; I am a 65 years old man, greetings to you in the name of the lord. This message is sent to you as a notification that you have been chosen to benefit from our charity project aimed at touching lives and helping those that we can across the world during this COVID-19 Pandemic period as God has blessed us. I won the Power Ball lottery of $150Million on November 2nd, 2019 and I have voluntarily decided to donate the sum of $10Million to charity, I try to reach people randomly from different sources and modes so as to touch lives from different angles, hence you are getting a message.
 
You have been listed as one of the lucky recipients to receive $2M This donation is made out to you so to enable you strengthen your personal issues and mostly to generously help us extend hands of giving to the less privileged, orphans and charity organizations within your locality at the period of COVID-19 Pandemic that the world is facing right now.
 
To verify my winnings kindly check the link below;
 
https://www.powerball.com/winner-story/150-million-powerball-ticket-claimed
 
However for the purpose of proper verification among other relevant information, it is imperative that you supply us with the following requirements and return back to me and my entire household will be glad for you to visit us after my donation gets to you. Do this on time so you can contact the payout bank for further directives to receive this donation.
 
Full Name:
Full Address:
Cell Phone Number:
Occupation:
 
Note: If you received this message in SPAM /BULK folder, it is because of the restrictions imposed by your MAIL/INTERNET service provider, we urge you to treat it genuinely.
 
May the Good lord bless your heart to be a blessing to your family and your society as soon as my donation gets to you, get back to me on how to receive the donation.
 
Mr. Bill Lawrence

Anti-fraud resources: