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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: Martin Benjamin <martnbenjamin@yahoo.co.uk>
Date: Fri, 24 Nov 2006 09:38:29 +0000 (GMT)
Subject: BE URGENT


Sigwald Schust

The German government is never a problem that was why you were asked to send money for opening of an account here in London. From the account you can quietly be moving money down to your country in bits.

And have you receive the document that i sent to you?

I am waiting to hear from you urgent

Regards

Martin.


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