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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: "Mrs. Gezeria Bell" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <mrs.gbelllovall@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 11 Mar 2017 04:04:32 +1100
Subject: I NEED YOUR FAITHFULNESS PLEASE


*****************************************************************
********************** SPAM REPORT MESSAGE **********************
*****************************************************************

Datagate AntiSPAM detection software has identified this incoming
email as possible spam. The original message report has been
attached to this so you can view it (if it isn't spam) or block
similar future email. If you have any questions, please contact
Datagate PostMaster <antispam@postmaster.datagate.net.uk>.

Content preview: My Dear Friend, Greeting to you in the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ, Let me first of all inform you, I got your email address from a mail
Directory and decided to mail you for a permission to go ahead. I am Mrs.Gezeria
Bell from United Kingdom, married to Dr. Calvin L. Bell who worked with Texaco
Oil Company in Nigeria before he died in a ghastly motor accident on his
way to a Board meeting. My Husband and I were married but without any child.
Since his death I decided not to re-marry and presently I am 69 Years old.
When my late husband was Alive he deposited the sum of $16.5M. (Sixteen Million
Five Hundred Thousand U.S. Dollars) with a Bank. Please, If you are not interested
to help me get this done, please ignore this mail and go about your normal
business [...]

Content analysis details: (7.0 points, 4.9 required)

pts rule name description
---- ---------------------- --------------------------------------------------
0.0 FSL_HELO_NON_FQDN_1 FSL_HELO_NON_FQDN_1
0.0 FSL_CTYPE_WIN1251 Content-Type only seen in 419 spam
0.0 NSL_RCVD_FROM_USER Received from User
1.6 SUBJ_ALL_CAPS Subject is all capitals
0.9 URG_BIZ BODY: Contains urgent matter
0.0 LOTS_OF_MONEY Huge... sums of money
0.0 FROM_MISSP_XPRIO Misspaced FROM + X-Priority
0.0 FROM_MISSP_MSFT From misspaced + supposed Microsoft tool
1.3 RDNS_NONE Delivered to internal network by a host with no rDNS
0.0 FSL_NEW_HELO_USER Spam's using Helo and User
0.0 AXB_XMAILER_MIMEOLE_OL_024C2 Yet another X header trait
0.0 FROM_MISSP_TO_UNDISC From misspaced, To undisclosed
0.0 FROM_MISSP_USER From misspaced, from "User"
0.0 MONEY_FROM_MISSP Lots of money and misspaced From
0.0 FROM_MISSP_REPLYTO From misspaced, has Reply-To
0.0 FROM_MISSPACED From: missing whitespace
0.4 MIMEOLE_DIRECT_TO_MX MIMEOLE + direct-to-MX
2.8 FORGED_MUA_OUTLOOK Forged mail pretending to be from MS Outlook
0.0 MONEY_FRAUD_8 Lots of money and very many fraud phrases
0.0 ADVANCE_FEE_5_NEW_MONEY Advance Fee fraud and lots of money


Datagate AntiSPAM Service <antispam@postmaster.datagate.net.uk>
---------------------------------------------------------------



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