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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: "Hamid Abdul L" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <hamabdull@yahoo.com>
Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2012 21:22:28 +0100
Subject: Please do get back to me

Quite sorry if this email comes to you as a surprise, My name is Hamid Abdul, a senior government official. Actually, I would just want to know the possibility at your end to assist me to receiving some fund trapped in a Finance Company into a safe bank account in your country or any other country of your choice. It's an urgent business deal because of the current financial probe that's targeted at Senior Government Officials and/or Former Political Office Holders. In fact, the government as at today is probing the accounts of all senior public servants/former political office holders and as such most senior government officials/former political office holders are making serious efforts to take their funds to safe bank accounts overseas and on this development I want to know if you will be able to co-operate with me as requested in this email . We can have one-on-one discussion if you so desire. Please, kindly note that this is absolutely not a hoax mail or scam!! It's a real business deal that will certainl
Awaiting your urgent response as time is of great essence in this transaction.

Regards,
Hamid Abdul

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