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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: "From Mrs Aram Hassan" <lilian@sul.com.br>
Reply-To: "From Mrs Aram Hassan" <aramhassan746@hotmail.com>
Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2015 9:48:37 -0300
Subject: Dear Beloved Friend,

--
Hello Dear

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 Drupe 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 $5,500,000.00 in a Bank which I want the Bank
to transfer this money to your Bank account for this project, and %80 of
this money will be use to build charity foundation in your base while %20
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

Aram Hassan

Anti-fraud resources: