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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: "Mrs.Maria Yaron" <mrs.mariayaron10@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 22 Oct 2014 16:23:46 +0000 (UTC)
Subject: I await your prompt response immediately,


HELLO MY DEAR GOOD DAY,

PLEASE I REALLY NEED YOUR HELP.
I want you to patiently read this offer. I am Mrs.Maria Yaron Mamadou, the wife to the deceased former Head of Delegation to the World Bank in West Africa. My husband was the linkman between the Organization for Petroleum Exporting Countries - OPEC and the petroleum sector in a West African country. He also attends OPEC meetings constantly in Geneva before his death caused by cardiac arrest in our home town.

Through the sale of our allocated oil quota in OPEC, he was able to make ($12.million USD) (TWELVE MILLION UNITED STATES DOLLARS)I want you to assist me to claim this money as i cannot claim it directly because he made the deposit as a fund belonging to his business associate in order not to raise eyebrow since he was a civil servant during that time, and the code of conduct bureau forbids him or his wife to acquire such amount of money.

It is on this basis that I am contacting you for assistance, if you will be interested, claim documents will been processed and sent to you. The documents with which the fund is deposited will be amended to reflect you as the beneficiary so that you will be eligible to collect the fund as his business associate.

You shall be entitled to 30% of the total funds while the rest will be given to me on arrival in your country for the up keeping of my only son and for further investment under your kind control there in your country as I can not be able to do any investment here in West Africa due to the origin of the said fund.

I will not fail to bring to your notice that this business is risk free and doesn't have any negative implication. You should not entertain any fear as all modalities for the smooth and easy transfer of this fund have been finalized. If you can conveniently assure me ofyour ability to keep this business very secret and confidential, you can write back to me for further details.I am waiting for your fast reply okay.

Yours Faithfully,
Mrs. Maria Yaron


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