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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: "George Padmore" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <georgepadmore009@yahoo.co.jp>
Date: Sun, 6 Feb 2011 05:17:39 -0800
Subject: Hello......


El programa de detección de Spam del sistema "dns1.ciberweb.com.mx", ha
identificado este mensaje como "correo basura". Aùn así, el
mensaje original no se ha borrado para su chequeo, si lo
era, podría bloquearlo en su programa de correo (cree un "filtro"
a partir de la etiqueta "X-Spam-Score"). Si tiene alguna duda,
contacte con el administrador para más detalles.

Contenido: Dearest Friend, I want to bring to your knowledge of a
very lucrative business opportunity that I have. Well I work as an agent
that accompanies contractors funds to be paid to them i have this deal
and i won't mind you in it if you promise to keep optimum
confidentiality. [...]

Detalles del análisis: (9.9 puntos, 5.0 requeridos)

pts regla aplicada descripción
---- ---------------------- ---------------------------------------
1.8 SUB_HELLO Subject starts with "Hello"
1.0 UNDISC_RECIPS Valid-looking To "undisclosed-recipients"
1.1 MSGID_FROM_MTA_ID Message-Id for external message added locally
2.3 DATE_IN_FUTURE_12_24 Date: is 12 to 24 hours after Received: date
0.3 MAILTO_TO_SPAM_ADDR URI: Includes a link to a likely spammer email
3.4 FORGED_MUA_OUTLOOK Forged mail pretending to be from MS Outlook



Anti-fraud resources: