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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: "IMF INQUIRY" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <imfinquiryi@w.cn>
Date: Wed, 7 Apr 2010 09:32:21 +0100
Subject: TRANSACTION REFERENCE NO. 0260019870065 VERIFICATION.


A confirmed bank transaction , Smtp 101 credit advice Reference 0260019870065 involving Millions of United States dollars initially approved to you as the beneficiary is suspected to have been diverted by someone we discovered during our investigation to false claims.

In a letter directed to our office for verification, the new beneficiary Messers Jacob Enterprises stated that the original owner of funds is dead. We have decided to verify this claim after instructing the sender bank to hold the transfer. Based on elaborate global Scams going on we have decided to contact you with available information that is contained in the payment file as stored in the computer which was hacked sometime ago
leading to loose of data.

Our questions is, Did you instruct, sign any application for any change of beneficiary bank
name dated 18TH OF March , 2010 requesting any bank to transfer the total sum to another account. If no please let is know what happened.

If after two working days, no response is received from you, it will be assumed that you are dead and as such authorization for transfer will be granted on behalf of Messers Jacobs enterprises to receive your fund in the stated account. No one will be liable for any reason if you later turn to apply for claim on the same funds as this will be seen that you have collaborated with Jacob to divert the funds.

In any case you deny this claims, kindly write responding immediately with
the information below

(1) Your full name.
(2) Phone, fax and mobile #.
3) company's name,position and address.
4) profession, age and marital status.
5) Copy of ID. or any scanned identity to prove yourself

You should also state how you want your fund paid to you without further delay if you are still alive. Send your response to
my email address: imfinquiryi@w.cn

Regards
Jerry Felix

Anti-fraud resources: