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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: "Yahoo!" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <director@manager.in.th>
Date: Sun, 6 Mar 2011 22:51:52 +0800
Subject: Reference:85748939294748392

Hello,your e-mail has won 1,000,000.00GBP in the recent Yahoo Internet Lottery,please reply immediately to collect your winnings.thank you.
Please send your instant reply to: director@manager.in.th
You will be given more details by our information centre when you send them your reply.
Congratulations for emerging a lucky winner.your ticket details are as follows:
ticket number:883734657492 5319 batch number:8254297137 serial number:7263 267 reference number:7336065782
If you are the user or owner of this email address,please contact us immediately to collect your prize

Anti-fraud resources: