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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: "Madam: Helen Johnson" <hllnjoh@info.org>
Reply-To: hllnjoh@aol.com
Date: Thu, 7 Apr 2011 02:07:03 -0500 (COT)
Subject: From: Helen Johnson

I am Mrs.Helen Johnson from Netherlands , I am 58 years old, I am
suffering from a long time cancer of the breast, from all indication my
conditions is really deteriorating and it is quite obvious that I can't
work or do any stressful thing, according to my doctors they have advised
me that I may not live for the next two months, this is because the cancer
stage has gotten to a very bad stage. I was brought up from a motherless
babies home was married to my late husband for twenty years without a
child.

My Husband (Roberto Johnson) died in a fatal motor accident before his
death we were true Christians. Since his death I decided not to re-marry,
I sold all my inherited belongings and deposited all the sum of $5.6
Million dollars with a Finance Security Company.

Presently, this money is still with them and the management just wrote me
as the true owner to come forward to receive the money for keeping it so
long with attract a demur rage fees as the security fees paid by me has
expired or rather issue a letter of authorization to somebody to receive
it on my behalf since I cannot come over because of my illness or they get
it confiscated.

So instead of getting it confiscated I rather have someone whom I can
trust to receive the funds and utilize it according to my Wishes. And the
best part of it is, the Finance Company told me in the letter that they
can have the funds released to my approved person that was authorized by
me or transferred to his/her bank account and if I issue authorizations
letter to them to transferred to his or her bank account.

Presently, I am using my laptop in the hospital at Frankfurt Germany where
I have been undergoing treatment for my sickness. I have since lost my
ability to talk and my doctors have told me that I have only more 2 months
to live. It is my last wish to see at least 60% of this money is
invested/donated to any organization/business of your choice and
distributed each year among the charity organization, e.g. the poor homes,
the motherless babies home where I came from, the deaf homes.

All I seek for is a God fearing person like you ,who will carry out my
last wishes and before I emailed you today I prayed and the holy spirit
gave me the confidence to send you this email. I took this decision,
before I rest in peace because my time will soon be up. As soon as I
receive your reply I will inform you the next procedure Please send me the
below information. NAME: ADDRESS: AGE: OCCUPATION: MOBILE NO:

All I need from you is a confidential assurance that the funds when
received by you will be used for the said purpose,It is difficult to trust
but I don’t know why the Holy spirit still approved me to email you about
this out of few email addresses I have from your country’s directory,
yours was the only one that my mind convinced. Waiting for your reply.

God Bless You,
Madam: Helen Johnson.

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