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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. Fredrick Smith" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <mrfredricksmith@qq.com>
Date: Wed, 2 Jul 2014 19:20:34 -0700
Subject: GOOD NEWS

INTERNATIONAL FUNDS TRANSFER / AUDIT UNIT UNITED NATIONS
(World Bank Assisted Programme) Directorate of International Payment and Transfers UN Plaza, DC2-2060, New York, 10017.


Attention:-The Beneficiary,
My Name is Mr. Fredrick Smith, I'm the 2nd vice chairman of the united nations/ international monetary fund investigating unit, we arrived into Nigeria on 12th January 2014, Following series of Complaints, by Beneficiaries who are yet to receive their outstanding Contract/Inheritance/lottery Funds, from the central bank of Nigeria and other commercial banks in Nigeria, Ghana and all other African Countries.

The International monitory fund investigating Unit discovered particularly in your own case that some corrupt bank/ Government Officials had the intention of diverting your Funds to their own private Accounts abroad. The Team that carried out the investigation recovered some Payment Files which have since been approved for payment which yours was inclusive, secondly, in the same file of yours, there is a letter here stating that you are dead, so based on this, we are contacting you to verify the true position of your status, and you have only 48hours to reply this mail or we will work with what we saw in your file that you are dead, and i will personally append my signature to push your fund into the government treasury account as an unclaimed fund.

Note that the United Nations special payment unit has been authorized to handle your Payment File and based on our recommendation, your Outstanding fund have been credited in our Paying Bank Escrow Account in your Favor pending your reconfirmation to this office of your true position in this matter. You are hereby advised to reply this mail immediately to confirm whether or not you actually wrote that Letter forfeiting your Funds otherwise you should indicate your interest in receiving your fund.

Please resend your Full Name. Residential Address.
(3) Telephone Number (Mobile Number if any)
(4) Age and Marital Status.
(5) Core Job or Occupation.
(6) A valid form of identification.
(7) Your Amount.
(8) Please state if it was Contract/ Inheritance or Lottery funds and the country you were expecting payment from.

You are advised to fully co-operate with this Team so that we can serve you better in this second Quota payment of this year 2014, and we assure you that we must bring to book all these corrupt officials of central bank if we found them guilty.
Waiting,

Mr. Fredrick Smith.

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