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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 Justina Cosby" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <equity.lawfirm@emailclick.com>
Date: Tue, 16 Mar 2010 20:37:07 +0100
Subject: My Last Wish

Dearest Friend,

My name is Mrs. Justina Cosby, I am married to (Eng Mr. Larry Cosby) from United Kingdom (U.K) who was one of the directors and also a contractor in Shell here in Nigeria, where he worked as the chief Managing director Engineering project/contract awarding section.

My husband died as a result of heart attack, while he was coming back from (ASIA) new location area on project inspection on Saturday 10th December 2006. Prior to his death we had a joint account worth $5.4M in a fixed deposit account.

My dear I was brought up as an orphan and was married to my late husband for twenty years without a child and am of age, I am 55 years now and am suffering from long time cancer of the lungs, which has partially affected my brain, and from all indication my condition is really deteriorating.

According to my doctors, my health is very poor because of the cancer ailment, I can not stay to live up two months at most. Therefore I need a God fearing person who will assure me that he/she will use this fund to help the Motherless babies, Orphanage, Charity organization and the less privileged.

I took this decision because I don't have any child that will inherit this money. You can contact my lawyer in person of Barrister Jude Ige at barrjudeige@excite.co.uk I have told him about you and he is waiting for you to contact with him. He will give you all the necessary guidelines both legally and otherwise, on how to get the funds. He is a nice person.

God bless you.

Mrs. Justina Cosby

Anti-fraud resources: