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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: "Adrian & Gillian Bayford" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <adriangilliancharity1@msn.com>
Date: Tue, 9 Apr 2013 01:13:06 +0530
Subject: DONATION

Dear Sir / Ma'am,


This is a personal mail directed to you. My wife and I won £148.6m GBP in
the Euro Millions Jackpot in August 2012 and have voluntarily decided
to donate £ 700,000,00 GBP to you as part of our own charity project
to improve the life of 10 lucky individuals all over the world. If you
have received this email then you are one of the lucky recipients, get
back to us with your details so that we can forward it to the payout
bank/courier who will transfer/deliver your own part of the donation to you.


You can verify this by visiting the web pages below.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-19254228


http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/video/2012/aug/14/euromillions-jackpot-winners-video


For the purpose of confidentiality and to claim your prize, reply via only
this email ID: adriangilliancharity2@msn.com


Yours Sincerely,
Adrian & Gillian Bayford

Anti-fraud resources: