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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: "Mrs.Marth Wilcox" <marthawilcox3@gmail.com>
Reply-To: paulgreen54@yahoo.com
Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2014 02:10:33 +0700
Subject: MY LAST WILL.....

Greetings,

I am sure this mail would be coming to you as a surprise since we have never met before and you would also be asking why I have decided to choose you amongst the numerous internet users in the world, precisely I cannot say why I have chosen you but do not worry for I come in peace and something very positive is about to happen to your life right now and to the lives of others through you if only you can carefully read and digest the message below.

Before I move further, permit me to give you a little of my biography, I am Mrs.Martha Wilcox, 82 Years old and the wife of Late Sir Wilcox Alex a dual citizen of United States and Britain who died with our only daughter Petra in a Plane crash on Monday the 7th of September 1998 GMT 14:22 UK while they were flying from New York to Geneva. Please see website below for more information. http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9809/swissair.victims.list/index.html

After the death of my husband I became the Head of his investment and now that I am old and weak I have decided to spend the rest of my life in my estate before i finally leave the world, but before the death of my husband we had a plan to use the last days of our lives to donate part of what we have worked for to the less privilege and charity homes and the other part for ourselves, family members and close friends, and it is so unfortunate that my husband is not alive today to do this with me and I am very weak and old now, hence I have decided to do this philanthropic work on behalf of my late husband.

Presently, I have willed out almost half of our assets to several charity homes and to some of the less privilege in different countries. Despite the agreement between my late husband and I to give aid to the deprived, we also agreed to render support to an individual we have never met due to the fact that when we were young,we received an anonymous help from an individual we did not know and we have not being able to know this individual till date, the impact we got from such gesture made us to do same.

I am sorry to inform you that you may never have the chance to meet me because I have just concluded the assignment which my husband and I have agreed upon before his sudden death and you happened to be the beneficiary of our last WILL, hence I need you to do me a favor by accepting our offer.

I deposited some fund in the sum of 3,000000.00 GBP (Three Million British Pounds) with DHL UK a couple of weeks ago to deliver to you, but i was very ill so i could not send you an email until today. what you have to do now is to contact the DHL COURIER SERVICE UK as soon as possible to know when they will deliver your package to you.

For your information, I have paid for the delivery Charge, Insurance Premium and Clearance Certificate Fee of the Cheque showing that it is not a Drug Money or meant to sponsor Terrorist attack in your Country.

You are to contact the dispatch director of DHL COURIER COMPANY immediately for confirmation and delivery of your cheque with the information below;

Contact Person:Mr.Paul Green
Email Address:paulgreen54@yahoo.com
Phone:+44-702-405-6690

NOTE: you are not to pay for the delivery Charge, the Insurance premium and the Clearance Certificate Fee of the Cheque because I have already paid for them, the only money you are expected to pay is 370 British Pounds for the security keeping of the cheque so far.

I would have paid the fee but the company insisted that I should not because they don't know when you will be contacting them and to avoid demurrage or further cost.You are to reconfirm the below information to them to avoid any mistake on the Delivery.

Full Names:
Occupation:
Residential Address:
Direct telephone number:

Below is the security keeping code: (SCT/4111/M) of your cheque, you are to also present it to them for verification before delivery.

Please, try to contact them as soon as you receive this mail to avoid further delay.

Be also notified that I will no longer be reading my email or surfing the internet as I have retired completely from the outside world to my ranch, at this moment I have nothing to do with cars, emails and other luxuries, all further correspondence should be forwarded to the courier company for the delivery of your cheque to you.

Yours Sincerely,
Mrs.Martha Wilcox

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