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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: publicity@charity.com
Reply-To: christywalton@activist.com
Date: Tue, 09 Apr 2013 20:48:29 +0530
Subject: Attention:Dear Account Holder


My Dearest Beloved, My name is Christy Walton, a widow and business woman, =
an American Citizen. I have recently been diagnosed with esophageal cancer =
and a rare Heart Disease for 22 years, which has defiled all medical treatm=
ent. Expert diagnosis has shown that I have few months to live. I am worth =
$ 26.5 billion Dollars which I inherited from my late husband John T. Walto=
n and which rates me as the second richest woman in the world. The intentio=
n of this email is to employ the expertise of a Charity minded individual, =
who can identify a viable and guarantee reasonable distribution of my wealt=
h to the needy. I cannot rely on family and closest relatives any more, as =
they did not show responsible behavior when I entrusted part of my wealth t=
o them to distribute to charity organizations but instead used the money fo=
r their personal needs. To prevent any more mishaps, my attorney will act a=
s a check, monitoring every aspect of the Charity. My Will is with my Lawye=
r which my Family is fully aware about, But there is 5% of my Bank Worth wh=
ich is =A390,000,000.00 (Ninety Million British Pounds),about $137,052,000.=
00(One Hundred And Thirty Seven Million United States Dollars) which nobody=
is aware of except my attorney. Please reply me back with your below detai=
ls to enable us proceed further and please keep this confidential. NAME....=
................... ADDRESSES.................. COUNTRY....................=
D.O.B/AGE.................. MOBILE NUMBER.............. SEX...............=
......... MARITAL STATUS............. OCCUPATION................. God Bless=
You. Mrs. Christy Walton

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