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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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Fraud email example:

From: martin barrys <martinbarrys1997@yahoo.com>
Date: Mon, 19 Sep 2005 06:46:05 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Important


Greetings.I am Mr Martin Barrys, a South African Government auditor and I work in the International operation department in a Local Bank here in South Africa. My purpose of contacting you is that I am looking for a Reliable patner in your country to place as the next of kin to a dormant account that have not been operated for years in my bank with a total sum of $ 36,000,000.USD and on further discreet investigation I also discovered that the account holder has long since passed away (dead) leaving no beneficiary to the account. I contacted you due to you are a foreigner and i will provide to you the necessary claim documents the bank we require from you in other to claim this fund.

You should send to me the undermentioned information immediately so as to enable me to start the paper work immediately without further delay.I will also like you to take a close look in my family website www.martins.com

The informations will be as follows.......

Name:
Business/Occupation:
Business/Office Address:
Residential Address:
Phone and Fax NO

Thanks as I 'm in anticipation of your favourable response.

Have a pleasant day.

Sincerely
Mr.Martin Barrys




























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