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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: "Mr. Raimund Thompson" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <fbi_agentofficer@yahoo.co.jp>
Date: Sat, 11 May 2013 05:03:43 -0400
Subject: RE: INVESTIGATION ON ALL FOREIGN TRANSACTION (FBI AGENT)

Our Ref: RTB /SNT/STB
To. Beneficiary.

FEDERAL BUREAU INVESTIGATION:
NIGERIA DIVISION

I am Mr. Raimund Thompson, a Special FBI Agent sent to Nigeria, delegated to investigate those fraudsters that swindles Foreigners who are in transaction in Nigeria. Please be informed that during my investigation i discovered that you are yet to claim your fund which is the total sum of $4.2million that has been assigned in your name, note that these fraudsters are busy swindling you without any hope of receiving your fund.

Alert: You are not suppose to pay that huge amount of money from the beginning before the release of your fund can commence depending on how you want the transfer made to you, be informed that my office has arrested few hoodlums in regards to the delay over your fund. We have a very limited time to investigate each individual's file of unclaimed fund, so I advise you urgently respond to this message.

The Leaders of the (FBI) in conjunction with the African Crime fighters has come together to inform the world what is going on now and we have recovered over $422 Million Dollars (Four Hundred and Twenty two Million Dollars) from the people we have apprehended. The reason we are writing you this letter is because your name was given to us by one of the fraudsters in our detention room after serious investigation and our aim is to refund all lost fund to its legitimate owner, we shall expect your response as soon as you receive this email.

You are advised to reconfirm the below listed information's to enable us facilitate an immediate release of your ATM Master Card to you.

BY ATM MASTER CARD ONLY.

Full Name:
Country:
State:
Residential Address:
Delivery Address:
Sex:
Age:
Direct Number:
Occupation& Fax Numbers:
Private Email Address:

Note that I have attached my Identification to this email for your perusal, do not inform any of those hoodlums that collected money from you before now about this new development to avoid jeopardizing our investigation.

Best Regard,
RAIMUND THOMPSON
(FBI) NIGERIA DIVISION
INVESTIGATION ON ALL FOREIGN TRANSACTION

Anti-fraud resources: