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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: "afiyahahmad101@gmail.com" <sema@police.go.th>
Reply-To: null <ahmadafiyah@yahoo.com>
Date: Mon, 6 Jan 2014 01:05:06 +0700 (ICT)
Subject: From Afiyah Ahmad

Dear Beloved Friend,

I write to you in good faith and hoping that you will understand the
importance of my email, my decision to contact you is because I have
been recently diagnosed with Cancer of the lungs and the doctor said
that I may not survive this illness. Since Syrian troop backed by
attacking helicopters clashed with rebels bombings in a mostly
Christian and Druze town near Damascus, my entire companies where
destroyed, I have been reflecting over my life in the past, it is
painful that after over 24 years of peaceful marriage with my late
husband, we had no child of our own that will inherit our numerous
wealth.

In the past, I have made reasonable donations to the victims of
Earthquake in Haiti and recently to the same victims in Japan and
Thailand. Now that my health is gradually deteriorating me which the
doctor said that I may not survive this illness and I cannot continue
to do all these by myself anymore, I strongly desire to reach out to
the poor and needy people in your base but I would prefer to continue
this with the assistance of a kind person like you to build charity
foundation in your base for the remembrance of my family.

I deposited the total sum of $3,500,000.00 in a Bank which I want the
Bank to transfer this money to your Bank account for this project, and
%90 of this money will be use to build charity foundation in your base
while %10 will be yours for your effort, I am hoping that you will not
betray me when the Bank transfers this money to you back account and
do reply me very urgently for details.

Yours Sincerely Sister
Afiyah Ahmad
ahmadafiyah@yahoo.com

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