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

Fraud email example:

From: "Mrs Linda Mahlungu" <lindamahlungu29@bellsouth.net>
Reply-To: linda.mahlungu@consultant.com
Date: Sun, 28 Oct 2007 13:24:34 +0000
Subject: AWAITING YOUR TIMELY RESPONSE!!

I am an Auditor General in one of the major leading banks in South Africa. In my Bank, I discovered an abandoned large sum of money (US$14.7M) belonging to one of our late Foreign Customer. Since 1996, nobody has operated this account,and the owner of this account, MR.SEAN BURKE, an American National, also a businessman based in South Africa, was involved in an air crash in which he died on August 6, 1997. Please confirm from this web site to know more.

http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9708/06/guam.passenger.list

I am basically writing to you to seek your sincere Co-operation to present you as the only sole business partner beneficiary to this deceased name above since he specified no beneficiary,and no other person knows about this Account. The strategy/plan is to use my influence as Auditor of the bank to approve the funds to you. If you are keen/interested let me know so that I can explain further details and next procedure/modalities more precisely and the share ratio.

Sincere Regards.
Mrs.Linda Mahlungu.






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