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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: LILIAN YAO <lilian123yao@yahoo.co.jp>
Date: Fri, 30 Jul 2010 19:26:57 +0800 (SGT)
Subject: Greeting


Greeting

How are you? It is my pleasure to write you after going through your profile i decided to contact you to help me out of my problem,however is not mandatory nor will i in any manner compel you to honour against your will,but first Iet me introduce myself to you, My name is Lilian Yao, I am 20 years old girl this year I am from Ivory coast and I lost my parents is a long story that i will tell you when we meet face to face in your country. Please want you to help me to invest the money my late father left for me and also help me to come over to your country to continue my education. The money is US$6,300,000 (Six million Three Hundred Thousand American dollars) and it is still in the bank. I promise to give you 15% if you can help me transfer the money out of the bank into your account in your country for investment. Reply me back for more information.

 

Yours,

 

Lilian .


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