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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: (sent from abused email account)
Reply-To: <theresawilliams766@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 25 Aug 2017 15:27:45 -0700
Subject: CONGRATULATION

RE: OFFICIAL NOTIFICATION LETTER

We wish to congratulate you over your success in the official publication of results of the E-mail electronic online Sweepstakes organized by Google, in conjunction with the Foundation for the Promotion of Software Products (F.P.S.P) and confirmed by our co-sponsors Visa®/MasterCard® International. Google earns its profit mainly from advertising using their very own Gmail, Gala, Sify e-mail services, Google Maps, Google Apps, Orkut social networking, You Tube video sharing, Google search engine and the Google ancillary services which are all offered to the public for free. Please us for more details on how to claim your funds

Sincerely,
Larry JohnSon

Anti-fraud resources: