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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: " Treasury Department" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <admreply@rediffmail.com>
Date: Fri, 27 Mar 2015 20:32:59 -0600
Subject: Re: Your Long Overdue Payment Notification

IMF DIRECTIVES TO COMPLETE YOUR TRANSACTION

Strictly follow this security instruction below and do not disregard any letter from our department.

This is to inform you that your file was forwarded to our agency for correction before payment. The services we provide are not only limited to cooperate bodies around the globe, but it is also extended to favor citizens and non citizens of the United States of America who are experiencing serious difficulty in recovering unpaid inheritance or awarded funds from most international financial institutions in Europe and in Africa. Nevertheless we have contacted most of the respective international financial departments handling your case to find out the source of your unpaid funds, the reason for a delay in payment and a final solution to this problem. During the course of our investigation, we discovered that you have been indulged into various undocumented bank transactions which have taken advantage of your funds through the use of office bureaucratic processes that almost forced you into bankruptcy.

Conclusively, we discovered that your fund was placed on hold because majority of these international fund remittance/transfer of over the total sum of $500,000 and above to private or business accounts, usually carried out by foreign banks, private or commercial courier companies were not systematically registered due to late submission of the complete requirements needed for the payment. In joint alliance with the International Monetary Fund to resolve this issue, we have gone through your file and our extensive investigation confirmed that you are the original beneficiary shortlisted to receive this fund but only the total sum of Seven Million United States Dollars ($7,000,000.00 USD) was approved for payment.

Further to this development, we are yet to confirm your original identity in order to be sure that your email address is not hacked or being accessed by an unknown individual. Therefore, you are advised to provide your full name, home address and telephone number along with a scanned copy of your identification card for verification before payment. As part of our vital national security measure, this review is being undertaken to ensure that we have the correct information of the fund beneficiary before you are issued an application for payment. If your identification card is not received within 20 days of this notification, we will be compelled to seek legal representation from our in-house attorney to terminate your payment until further notice.

Forward your details for assistance.

Regards,

Peter Richard
Foreign Assets Control.
U.S. Department of the Treasury.
============================================
Questions about this information should be directed to
The U.S. Department of the Treasury

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