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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: Elizabeth Zuru <elizabethzuru121@gmail.com>
Reply-To: elizabethzuruci@yahoo.com
Date: Fri, 10 Oct 2014 10:05:39 +0000
Subject: GOD BLESS YOU AS YOU REPLY URGENTLY

GOD BLESS YOU AS YOU REPLY URGENTLY
Dear Child of God,

Calvary Greetings in the name of the LORD Almighty and Our LORD JESUS
CHRIST the giver of every good thing.

Good day and compliments of the seasons, i know this letter will
definitely come to you as a huge surprise, but I implore you to take
the time to go through it carefully as the decision you make will go
off a long way to determine my future and continued existence. I am
Mrs.Elizabeth Fatoumata Zuruma a born aging widow of 56 years old
suffering from long time illness.

I have some funds I inherited from my late husband, the sum of
$8.5,000,000.00 and I needed a very honest and God fearing Christian
who can withdraw this money then use the funds for Charity works. I
WISH TO GIVE THIS FUNDS TO YOU FOR CHARITY WORKS. I found your email
address from the internet when am looking for missionary wokers after
honest prayers to the LORD to bring me a helper and i decided to
contact you if you may be willing and interested to handle these trust
funds in good faith before anything happens to me.

I am desperately in keen need of assistance and I have summoned up
courage to contact you for this task, you must not fail me and the
millions of the poor people in our todays WORLD. This is no stolen
money and there are no dangers involved,100% RISK FREE with full legal
proof. Please if you would be able to use the funds for the Charity
works please kindly let me know immediately.

Please kindly respond quickly for further details, reply quick or you
will give me room to contact someone else to handle this task

Warmest Regards,
Mrs Elizabeth Fatoumata Zuruma

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