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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: "Webmail Admin Upgrade Team" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <Admin@webmails.com>
Date: Tue, 20 May 2014 23:51:44 -1200
Subject: NOTICE: UPGRADE YOUR EMAIL ACCOUNT

Your web account is corrupted with an unseen virus and it has exceeded its limit and currently running 99.7% of its Quota limit of 100%. Your account has been blocked to receive email properly until you upgrade your web account with the new i-Secure TKV4S Anti-virus/anti-spam 2014 version.
 
Note: To update your web account, click on the link below and paste in your browser to request for upgrade and fill in the correct information.
 
 
http://forms.logiforms.com/formdata/user_forms/66286_5512488/319795/page1.html?cachebust=1159
 
 
We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this might cause you and we tend to serve you better.
Thanks for your co-operation.
Admin Update Team.

Anti-fraud resources: