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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: Grace Ama <graceama1980@gmail.com>
Reply-To: Grace Ama <graceama1980@yahoo.com>
Date: Wed, 15 Feb 2017 20:15:59 +0900 (JST)
Subject: Donation to help Ogrphanages and less-privilege


Hi dear,

 
My name is Mrs. Grace Ama, a widow having lost my husband to the power of
death in 2014. We married for many years but we have no children. I am
from Australia but presently living in Cote d’Ivoire a small African
country. I lived with my husband here for years before he died. My
husband was a businessman that traded on cocoa exportation and he made
money. Since we have no children, we agreed together to use our money to build charity/orphanage homes to house thousands of orphans and also help the less privilege. In the wake to carry out this project, my husband died. The shock of his death left me with distress and sorrow with a heavy
blow because he was my only friend, brother and all. Base on the love we have for each other, I took the decision never to remarry. But now, I
have a serious health challenge in that I was diagnosis of cancer of the lungs and chest with partial stroke on my leg which doctors said I will not live more than 4 months from now. This is why I am contacting you
so that I can through you accomplish our wish and desire to help orphans by donating this funds to Orphanges, Motherless homes and the Less
Privilege through your help and supervision. The money is in the bank in the amount of USD $3.5M. I will hand over the documents of the funds to you as soon as I see your seriousness to carry on with this project. I
am still lying in the hospital bed from where I now write you. I want you to do everything fast to have this
fund transferred to you before I die. I don’t want the bank to claim the fund. Please be honest to me; are you ready to do this for me because
it is my last wish/desire on earth before I die? I hope you are ready to do what I am asking you to do? 

If you are ready, please give me your:

Full Name: 
Contact address: 
Telephone number: 
Occupation: Age and photo:  

I will give you the bank address so that you can contact them for formal
procedures on how to get the funds transferred to you. Do not delay to
write me because now my life is in-balance. If you delay to reply me, it means you are giving me the impression that you are not willing and
will source for another option. I wait to read from you.

Mrs. Grace Ama

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