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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: "Elaine Green" <ishipcompany@mail.mn>
Reply-To: <elaine.green@gmx.com>
Date: Tue, 14 Dec 2010 23:48:13 -0800
Subject: Hello Dearest in Christ

Dearest in Christ.

My name is Mrs. Elaine Green, i am 67 years old from Murray Hill, New York in the US. My late husband was a business and spent all his life on investments and corporate businesses. My dear i have got a huge sum of funds with a bank in London England which I inherited from my late husband who was British. The funds in question were deposited into my offshore account in England because of the high IRS tax here in the United States and has been in my bank account in England for a very long time now, while i have been fighting the battle of my life with cancer.

In November 2002 i lost my husband and my beautiful daughter in a fatal car accident. Since that incident i would say i have being an introvert, because it got me terribly disorganized moreso, it has being difficult for me to be at rest ever since.

Later in the year 2008 after a medical check up, my personal doctor revealed that i have been diagnosed with cancer of the lungs which is equally life threatening and stressed that my lung cancer has eaten deep into my entire body system,subsequently he has been reminding me of the seemingly hopelessness of my health situation at the moment. My personal doctor of more than a decade Dr. Wolfgang Muller and his colleague are making plans of flying me to a renowned specialist for a surgery. However, this plan is yet to be successful because they are considering that I must be operated in a very good hospital and environment.

I have been finding it uneasy to concentrate and my health is failing me by the day, and i have this conviction within me to share my wealth amongst motherless babies/orphanage homes/people that need money for survival especially widows for their future upkeep.

Please i am writing this letter to you, just to be sure that you are really willing and genuine to help me disburse funds to the mentioned organizations within your axis and around the world. My soul will be forever grateful. Then i can make the required arrangement on that. I really want to do this for my soul to be at rest if eventually i give up the ghost now or during my surgery.

I will release more detailed information to you as soon as i get a response from you saying that you are willing to carry out this rare but important humanitarian assignment for me. I want you to also know that this is not a scam but a sincere request for an assistance to help the less privileged in our society as well as put smiles in the faces of so many poor people around the world.

Best Regards and stay blessed.

Mrs. Elaine Green

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