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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: "Dr. Joseph Eilers" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <emildecoster22@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 5 Nov 2017 07:55:59 +0100
Subject: CONGRATULATION....WINNER

Congratulations Sir,
 
We are very happy to inform you that your name appear among the winners of facebook lottery promotion and you have just won the Sum of $1,000,000, U.S Dollars {One Million United State Dollars}Your name was selected in a raffle draw that was made on 16th september, 2017. Hence, we need your urgent response so that we can proceed in processing the immediate rleasing of your winning funds to you.
 
Your name was selected by Mr Mark Zuckerberg the CEO of Facebook (Founder & Chief Executive Officer ) The promotion was made to make all face book user benefit from the gain, as the company Named face book is the first and ever largest means of meeting both old and new friends.
 
The promo was done to serve as a means of appreciation to visitors on our site and also to help people to fight off poverty and to maintain the standard of living.
 
Note: This is 100% Real and Legal and any user of the Face Book who is not interested should not bother to reply and shouldn't reply with an abusive word back to our Staff.
 
Your winning will be sent to you through certify check/Draft. So, reply with your residential address where you will receive your winning.
 
We look forward to hearing from you.
 
Yours faithfully,
 
Greg Holmes
for: CDAA.
Get some Zero paid Gear FBI SCAM PROTECTED
Facebook, Inc. Attention: Department 415 P.O Box 10005 Palo Alto CA 94303 Description above from the Wikipedia article Greg Holmes, licensed under CC-BY-SA full list of contributors here. Community Pages are not affiliated with, or endorsed by, anyone associated with the topic.
 
Mr Mark Zuckerberg
CEO Facebook.
 

Anti-fraud resources: