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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: From Caroline Obah <carolineobah2@rediffmail.com>
Date: Thu, 4 Nov 2010 06:19:40 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Hello





Dearest one.
 
I am Miss Caroline Obah young medical student from Cote d'Ivoire West Africa.
I would like to go into a partnership with you; it is my pleasure to contact you for a business venture which I intend to establish in your country.
 
Though I have not met with you before but I believe one has to riskconfident in succeed sometimes in life. There is this huge amount ($10,000,000.00 Dollars) Ten Million United State Dollarswhich my late Father deposited on my name in the suspense account with one Bank here in Abidjan cote west africa before his Death.
 
Now I have decided to invest this money in your country or anywhere safeenough outside Africa for security and political reasons. I want you to helpme claim and retrieve these fund from the Bank and transfer it into your personal account in your country for investment purposes, since the money isdeposited in the suspense account I can not have access to the fund until it is transferred out from the account that is why I am contacting you to assists me and see that the Bank transfer the money into your personal account so that i can leave this country and meet you over there. I am honourably seeking your assistance in the following ways: 1) To provide a bank account into which this money would be transferred to and your home address , photos so that i will full know you To serve as a guardian of this fund.(2) To make arrangement for me to come over to your country to further my education and to secure a resident permit in your country.
 
If you can be of assistance to me I will be pleased to offer you 20% of the total fund, and again we are going to invest the money together and share what ever profit we make together, I want you to get back to me as soon as possible so that I will tell you what next step to take to enable us conclude this transfer. I am waiting for your soonest response.

Yours Sincerely,
Miss. Caroline Obah

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