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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: "Mr.Wilson" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <mayers.wils@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 31 Mar 2011 18:36:51 -0700
Subject: ATTN:From Foreign Payment Director

BANK OF ENGLAND/UNITED NATIONS 2011 COMPENSATION
>From Foreign Payment Director
Barclays Bank of London
Mr.wilson Mayers
Email: mayers.wils@gmail.com

Attn: SCAMMED VICTIM/ 250,000 POUNDS BENEFICIARY.REF/PAYMENTS CODE: 06654 £250,000 GBP.

This is to bring to your notice that I am delegated from the United Nations to Barclays Bank of London to pay 100 scam victims 250,000 GBP each, you are listed and approved for this payments as one of the scammed victims, get back to us as soon as possible for the immediate payments of your £250,000 compensations funds.

On this faithful recommendations,i want you to know that during the last UN meetings held at London, England, it was alarmed so much by the rest of the world in the meetings on the lose of funds by various foreigners to the scams artists operating in syndicates all over the world today.

In other to retain the good image of the country, the British Prime Minister is now paying 100 victims of this operators £250,000 GBP each, Due to the corrupt and inefficient banking systems in Africa, the payments are to be paid by Barclay s Bank as corresponding paying bank under funding assistance by the Bank of England.

According to the number of applicants at hand, 80 beneficiaries has been paid ,half of the victims are from the United States, we still have more 20 left to be paid the compensations of £250,000 each.you are hereby warned not to communicate or duplicate this message to anyone for any reason what so ever,

You can receive your compensations payments via any of the both options you choose,DRAFT PAYMENTS or WIRE TRANSFERS,I shall feed you with further modalities as soon as I hear from you. do respond to my email
() for more advise

Yours Faithfully,
Wilson Mayers

WARNING!
Do not tell people about your Award until your money is successfully handed over
to you to avoid disqualification that may arise from double claim. You may also
receive similar e-mails from people portraying to be other Organizations This is
solely to collect your personal information from you and lay claim over your winning.
In event that you receive any e-mail similar to the notification letter that was sent
to you, kindly delete it from your mail box and give no further correspondence to such
person or body. United Nations.shall not be held responsible for any loss of fund
arising from the above mentioned

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