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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: "Email Adminstrator" (may be fake)
Date: Wed, 18 Jul 2012 20:07:57 +0100
Subject: Email Account Verification


Email Account Verification

Dear Email User,

Your Email account was recently logged into from another computer,
mobile device or other location.

For your protection, Please take a second to update your records by
following the reference We have attached to your E-mail.

Once the information provided matches what is on our record, Your
account will work as normal after the verification is processed.


Sincerely,
Mail Service Team.
*********************************************************************

*********************
Disclaimer:The information contained in this e-mail message and/or
attachments to it may contain confidential or privileged information.
If you are not the intended recipient of this message any
dissemination, use, review, distribution, printing or copying of the
information contained in this e-mail message and/or attachments to it
are strictly prohibited and your are requested to notify the sender &
delete this message from your system. Any unauthorized use or
dissemination of this message in whole or in part is strictly
forbidden. Emails cannot be guaranteed to be timely, secure,
error-free or virus-free. Therefore, Mail Service Life does not

accept
responsibility for any errors or omissions. Although Anti-virus
software is deployed at Mail Service Life to scan the messages, it
does not accept responsibility for any damage whatsoever that is
caused by viruses being passed.
Computer viruses can be transmitted via email. The recipient should
check this email and any attachments for possible presence of

viruses.
Mail Service Life accepts no liability for any damage caused by any
virus transmitted by this email.
*********************************************************************

*********************

Anti-fraud resources: