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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: "PAUL" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <michaelpaulprivatebox@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 6 Aug 2010 22:56:00 +0200
Subject: From Captain Michael Paul


My name is Captain Michael Paul with the United States troop in Iraq on war against terrorism. Based on the United States legislative and executive decision for withdrawing troops from Iraq Due to the tremendous victory of President Obama being the current president of America, We the soldier's here in Iraq are so glad because arrangements has been made already on pulling the whole military soldier's out of Iraq. Carefully read the attachment file for more detail.

Anti-fraud resources: