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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: Helen Jones <helenjones@latinmail.com>
Reply-To: Helen Jones <helenjones341@yahoo.com>
Date: Thu, 24 Oct 2013 15:43:05 +0100 (BST)
Subject: Good day my dear


My Dear,

I don't know how my generosity offer may sound to you, especially as it comes from a stranger, as it's the only change I have to give my wealth away for charity work due to my health situation.

My name is Mrs. Helen Jones, I married to Mr. Steven Jones who was a Cocoa and Gold merchant in Ivory Coast for 21 years before he died on second November 2010, we were married for eleven years without a child, He died after a brief illness that lasted for only four days.

Since his death I decided not to remarry or get a Child outside my matrimonial home, when my late husband was alive he deposited the sum of US$7, million dollars, in one of the leading bank here in Ivory Coast. My doctor told me that I should start looking for whom to will my properties due to my Cancer and Stroke sickness; he made it clear to me that he is not going to guarantee my life in this surgery.

I will like to hand you over this fund and my properties as a donation to help flood affected and poor street children or to establish a manufacturing company to create job opportunity for jobless people as I cant invest it here in Ivory Coast due to recent bloody political crisis here which has not been controlled, I want to hand over this fund to you as it was my vow to establish charity project before I leave the world. I took this decision because I don't have any Child that will inherit this fund, and my husband relatives have seized all his investments due to that I don't have a Child.

I don't need any telephone communication in this regard because of my condition and I don't want anybody to know about this project, as soon as you response to this message I will inform the bank for immediate transfer of this fund to your personal bank account for this project, I will offer you 20 percent of the total fund for any expenses that may occur during this charity work, and I want you to always pray for me for m y upcoming surgery,

Yours Sister In the Lord,
Mrs. Helen Jones,

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