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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: "Kara Smith" <karasmith1930@att.net>
Reply-To: <karasmith2k@yahoo.se>
Date: Mon, 25 Apr 2011 19:13:38 -0000
Subject: URGENT RESPOND NEEDED.

Dear Beloved,

I am Mrs.Kara Smith from Zimbabwe, the wife, to late minority right wing activist/environmentalist and leader of the movement for the survival of white farmers in Zimbabwe. My husband Mr. Smith Bakomlo, was killed during the on going war against white farmers in Zimbabwe .

It was the desire of our president Mr. Robert Mugabe to claim all the land owned by white farmers and redistribute them to his party members and his followers, Our president ordered all white farmers to surrender all their farms to his party members and followers, White farmers who refused to do this were either maimed or outright killed.

My Husband was one of the biggest farmers in our country and because he did not support president Mugabe’s ideas, president Mugabe’s supporters invaded my husband’s farms and burnt down everything in the farm, killed my husband, and made away with a lot of items in my husband’s farm,and seized his properties. but before his death, my husband had deposited with one of the security company’s in Accra Ghana, the sum of US $17.5 million,(Seventeen million five hundred thousand United States dollars only.)

Due to the hostilities, harassment and arrest being visited on my family by the government of president Robert Mugabe and his agents,I am therefore asking for your kind understanding and assistance in the claim of this fund since the government of this country has made it very unbearable for us to live here. Please i want you to do anything you can to save our life immediately out of this country for i and my two children not to be murder in this country. Please i will want my children to move first into your country before me. I have resolved in my heart that for the kind assistance and help you will render to save the life of me and my children, 25% of the total money will be for you, for helping my family out of this condition. I need sufficient assurance and guarantee that you will not sit on the fund when it is finally credited into your account. This fund is the only hope I and my family have to survive in the future.

I am sincerely optimistic that you will not betray the trust and confidence which I was made to repose in you considering the circumstances in which my husband was brutally killed.

Thanks and God bless you as you help us.

Best regard,

Mrs.Kara smith.

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