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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: "Mr. Braunwalder Garland" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <braunwaldergarland001@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 8 Nov 2017 13:54:51 +0100
Subject: Are You Dead Or Alive?

Attention: Beneficiary



I am Mr. Braunwalder Garland of IMF Head Office.



Your email appeared among the beneficiaries, who will receive a part-payment of your contractual sum of USD$6.5 Million and has been approved already for months. You are requested to get back to me for more direction and instruction on how to receive your fund.



However, we received an email from one Mrs. Virgie Brown who told us that she is your next of kin and that you died in a car accident last week. She has also submitted her account for us to transfer the fund to her. We want to hear from you before we can make the transfer to confirm if you are dead or not.


Please in confirmation that you are still alive, you are advised to reconfirm the below listed information to enable us facilitate an immediate payment for you.


1 Your full names
2 Your present contact address.
3 Your telephone & Fax numbers.
4 Your Occupations/age/sex.
5 Your Private E mail Address.


Once again, I apologize to you on behalf of IMF (International Monetary Funds) for failure to pay your funds in time, which according to records in the system had been long overdue.

Thanks,

Mr. Braunwalder Garland

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