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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: "Mrs. Pamela Johnson" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <atm_swiftcard@mail.com>
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 2010 02:32:40 +0100
Subject: UNITED NATIONS COMPENSATION.

UNITED NATIONS COMPENSATION.
From: Mrs. Pamela Johnson
Executive Payment Officer (UN)
 
 
Attention: Beneficiary
 
This is to officially inform you that we have verified your contract / inheritance file presently on my desk, and I found out that you have not received your payment due to your lack of co-operation and not fulfilling the obligations giving to you in respect to your contract / inheritance payment.
Secondly, you are hereby advised to stop dealing with some non-officials in the bank as this is an illegal act and will have to stop if you so wish to receive your payment immediately. After the board meeting held at our headquarters, we have resolved in finding a solution to your problem, and as you may know, we have arranged your payment through our SWIFT CARD PAYMENT CENTRE in Europe, America and Asia Pacific, which is the instruction given by our president, Umaru Yar’adua (GCFR) Federal Republic of Nigeria.
This card centre will send you an ATM CARD which you will use to withdraw your money in an ATM MACHINE in any part of the world, but the maximum is ($20,000.00) Twenty Thousand Us Dollars per day. So, if you like to receive your fund this way, please do let us know by forwarding the below details to Prof Frank Obi the CARD PAYMENT CENTRE on this email: atm_swiftcard@mail.com
Click on this link to see for yourself (http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2003/ik344.doc.htm)
 
(1) Your Full Name
(2) Address where you want the payment centre to send your ATM CARD.
(3)Phone And Fax Number
(4) Your Total Fund to be received is US$2.600,000.00
 
Instead of losing your fund, please indicate to the Card Centre the total sum you are expecting and for your information you have stop any further communication with anybody or office. On this regards, do not hesitate to contact me for more details and direction, and also please do update me with any new development.
Thanks for your co-operation.
 
Regards,
From: Mrs. Pamela Johnson
Executive Payment Officer (UN)
United Nation Of Nigeria..
 
Note: Because of impostors, we hereby issue you with our code of conduct, which are 2010) so you have to indicate this code when contacting this CARD CENTRE

Anti-fraud resources: