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"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam

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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.

Read more about such scams here or in our 419 FAQ. Use the Scam-O-Matic to verify suspect emails.

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Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

• The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
  • "dear sir/madam" (a standard Nigerian greeting phrase)
  • "trunk box" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
  • "your country for safe keeping" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
  • "million us dollars" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
• This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
  

Fraud email example:

From: "Mrs.Farah Hasan" <fah_hahhs@excite.com> (may be fake)
Date: Sun, 3 Jun 2007 18:16:55 +0800
Subject: I NEED YOUR ASSISTANCE

Dear Sir/Madam,

Let me crave your induIgence by introducing my humble self to you , I am Mrs. Farah Hasan , a mother of three children. My husband was a volunteer worker who worked with international red cross society in Southern Iraqi city of Basra but he was killed in the war between the British troops and Iraqi army while on duty.

You must have heard over the media reports and on the Internet the War against my country Iraq. Many innocent civilians are dead and thousands are injured while millions are rendered homeless as they bombarded our country. Most of our infrastructures are now in ruins as a result of their deadly bombardment of Iraq. Even though the war is ended but people are dying everyday as a result of war between Americans, British troops with militant sunnis and shiites.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/09/04/iraq.main/index.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5398766.stm

On the 26th day of August, British war planes bombed baath party and revolutionary Guard buildings located in the densely populated area of basra belonging to ousted Saddam Hussein regime and reduced the whole bulidings to heap of ruins. My husband as a volunteer worker was among the few that were sent to assist in the rescue operations. During the rescue operation, My husband and a fellow volunteer worker discovered a trunk box in the heaps of the debris and according to him, when they opened it, it contains a neatly packed bundles of united states dollars in cash. As they made a rough and hasty counting of the money, they came up with the figure $8.5million US dollars.

Inoder to summarise the whole story,my husband and his colleague took the trunk box that contained the funds and hide it in one of the dilapidated buliding here in Iraq but they later they shipped it to our neighbouring country Iran and deposited it with a local security company and it is still in their vaults till date. It is sad to say that my husband and his colleague did not live to enjoy the fruit of their fortune because their red cross outpost stationed in basra was mistakenly targeted by british war jet fighter. May their souls rest in peace.

The reason why I am contacting you is for you to assist me to invest this huge money in your country because I still posses the documents regarding the funds deposit which was made in my husbands name. I also have the picture of the cash money as he took the picture before they shipped the funds and got it deposited in Iran, our neighbouring country.

As I am not a business women and again the situation in our country is hell and it is not safe to keep or invest the fund in a war turn zone like Iraq, your assistance is needed to clear this fund out of the Security for subsequent investment.
If you are interested to work with me, we can set up a business partnership with you in your country and it is my wish to invest in property and real estate investment. I will compensate you for your role in this venture and if you are interested, I will inform you my arrangements on how I intend to send the money to you in your country for safe keeping and investment.

For your assistance, my family will offer you 20% of the total sum. If you are interested please reply me so that we can plan on how to proceed but if you are not interested feel free to decline this offer as it is not mandatory.

Thanks and regards,

Farah

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam