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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: "Peter Guidry" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <wu_center000@yahoo.co.jp>
Date: Tue, 25 Sep 2012 03:00:31 -0500
Subject: Attention: E-mail Address Owner

Western Union Money Transfer
Send Money Worldwide
http://www.westernunion.com/
 
Attention: E-mail Address Owner
 
 
Complement of the season to you and your beloved family. The International
Monetary Fund (IMF) is compensating all the recent scam victims and your
email address was found in the scam victim's list. This Western Union®
office has been mandated by the IMF to transfer your compensation to you
via Western Union® Money Transfer.
 
However, we have successfully concluded all the arrangements to effect
your payment through Western Union® Money Transfer. We have scheduled
your payment to be completed by sending you $10,000 twice daily until the
total sum of $3,000,000.00 is completely transferred to you.
 
Not-withstanding, we can not be able to send the payment with your email
address alone, thereby we need your information as to where we will be
sending the funds, such as;
 
Receiver's name:................(Full Name)
Address:.................
Country:.......................
Phone number:.......................
 
Note that your payment files will be returned to the IMF if we did not
hear from you, this was the instruction given to us by the IMF. We will
start the transfer as soon as we received your information. For urgent
inquiry about your daily payment.
 
Mr Peter Guidry
Manager & Payment Officer Western Union
E-mail-  wu_center000@yahoo.co.jp
 
CONFIDENTIAL NOTICE
This email is intended for the owner of this E-mail Address only and
contains privileged and confidential information. If you received this
email by error, please delete it from your mail box and notify us
immediately for correction. The disclosure of this email to a third party
is highly prohibited. Thanks for your understanding.

Anti-fraud resources: