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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: "The payment" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <paulalexo55@outlook.com>
Date: Thu, 21 Sep 2017 16:58:41 +0100
Subject: Good Message for you to read & Reply, (Not Spam).

Dear Fund Beneficiary!!!,
This is to inform you that in the course of my investigation as director of payment verification / implementation committee I came across your name as unpaid fund beneficiary in the record of the central bank. My committee was set up by the attorney general to verify and scrutinize all outstanding debts owed to our foreign beneficiaries in accordance to the information received from the United States government And European ,Asia Empowered By United Nations over unpaid huge debts owed to United States citizens and European,Asia Citizens as well and Others Countries .

Having seen your file and my further questioning to the officials of the central bank and ministry of finance as to why your payment $81 million dollars is still pending reveals the rot and corruption in the system. The bank officials told me that the reason why you haven't received payment is due to your inability to pay for the required charges for transfer of funds to your account. When I asked them why they didn't deduct the said charges from your principal sum, I was given the flimsy excuse that you never authorized them to do so. When I put the question across to them if they ever advised you that such charges could be deducted from your principal fund,the answer I got was no. Now, if you do not tell this beneficiary that such charges could be deducted from his or her principal fund, how will he or she know that such options are available for such beneficiaries.

From my investigation I discovered that these bank officials deliberately refused to let the charges be deducted from your principal fund because they want your fund to remain trapped in the bank, while they continue to extort money from beneficiaries under some flimsy excuse. You do not need to pay any money to any official, all you are required to do is swear to an affidavit at the high court, authorizing the bank to deduct all charges from your principal fund and transfer the balance of funds after deduction to your bank account. If you have spent any money in the past in your quest for payment, kindly let me know so that I can follow this up.Forward you identity card,telephone and home or office address as soon as possible and get payment process directive.

Yours sincerely,
Inspector General of Anti-Fraud International.
Reply also on this email: mrmarcelsouza@gmail.com for privacy.

Anti-fraud resources: