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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: Kenneth Williams <stephenlukman2@gmail.com>
Reply-To: k477wills@yahoo.com
Date: Sun, 26 Mar 2023 09:20:38 +0000
Subject: Hi

Dear,


Greetings, to you. I have come across your name and contact as I search the
mail for a very good partner.
Briefly I will explain a business to you and if it would be to your
interest, I have inherited the sum of 5 million dollars from my late
father. The funds had been with a bank here in my country.

As a result of some agreement clause, they could not release the funds to
me here locally.
If you are interested to partner with me, do reply back then we can move
ahead to effectively build this business relationship.

Waiting for your reply,
Best Regards,
Kenneth Williams.

Anti-fraud resources: