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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: swillenberger@uptempopay.com
Reply-To: joejesthwaite@gmail.com
Date: Wed, 05 Apr 2023 21:55:26 +0200
Subject: Read Your Email.

Good Day,
Hope you are well and keeping safe.
We are Joe and Jess Thwaite, aged 50 and 44, from Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. We won £184 million in the Euromillions lottery jackpot on May 10th, 2022. We would like to donate € 950,000.00 each to 3 random emailsand yours is one of the lucky emails we selected from a raffle. We donate in good faith the sum of € 950,000.00 to you and your family.Please reply to this message
to claim your donation.
We await your reply.
Best Regards,
Joe & Jess Thwaite.

Anti-fraud resources: