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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: "Mrs. Marie Hampton" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <mariemhampton@aol.com>
Date: Sat, 14 Jan 2012 14:57:14 -0800
Subject: God Bless You

Beloved,

I pray you find peace with this. I'm Mrs. Marie Hampton from Scotland, wife to late Sir. David Hampton an Ex-
Chairman of T.O.C. London who died on air crash on a vacation to the Canary Islands, Spain Wednesday, 20 August,
2008.

Here is the proof: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7572643.stm

We were married with no child and I decided not to remarry since I'm now old. When my husband was alive, he
deposited $25.800.000.00 with a bank in malaysia which he intended to use for a charity project. And the bank wrote
me a week ago to come and claim this money as the next of kin or give an authority letter to someone who can do it
for me. I can't do this myself becos I am presently in a hospital where I've been taking treatment for cancer of
the lungs for the past four years. My doctors have told me that I have only but few weeks to live that is why I
decided to use this fund for charity work. I have no family who can do this for me, so I decided to look for a
sincere person or family who can use 80% of the fund to run the charity. As soon as you respond, I will write an
authority letter to the bank to release the fund to you. I want you to promise me that you will use this fund
exactly as I have said.

I await your urgent reply.
Marie Hampton

Anti-fraud resources: