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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: Grace Ama <graceama1981@t-online.de>
Reply-To: "graceeama1980@yahoo.com" <graceeama1980@yahoo.com>
Date: Wed, 13 Dec 2017 12:39:32 +0100 (CET)
Subject: From: Grace Ama




Hi dear,

My name is Mrs. Grace Ama, a widow having lost my husband to the power of
death in 2014. We married for many years but we have no children. I am from
Australia but presently living in Cote d’Ivoire a small African country. I
lived with my husband here for years before he died. My husband was a
businessman that traded on cocoa exportation and he made money. Since we
have no children, we agreed together to use our money to build
charity/orphanage homes to house thousands of orphans and also help the
less privilege. In the wake to carry out this project, my husband died. The
shock of his death left me with distress and sorrow with a heavy blow
because he was my only friend, brother and all. Base on the love we had for
each other, I took the decision never to remarry. But now, I have a serious
health challenge in that I was diagnosis of cancer of the lungs and chest
with partial stroke on my leg which doctors said I will not live more than
4 months from now. This is why I am contacting you so that I can through
you accomplish our wish and desire to help orphans by donating this fund to
Orphanages, Motherless homes and the Less Privilege through your help and
supervision. The money is in the bank in the amount of USD $3.5M. I will
hand over the documents of the funds to you as soon as I see your
seriousness to carry on with this project. I am still lying in the hospital
bed from where I now write you. I want you to do everything fast to have
this fund transferred to you before I die. I don’t want the bank to claim
the fund. Please be honest to me; are you ready to do this for me because
it is my last wish/desire on earth before I die? I hope you are ready to do
what I am asking you to do?

If you are ready, please give me your:

Full Name:
Contact address:
Telephone number:
Occupation: Age and photo:

I will give you the bank address so that you can contact them for formal
procedures on how to get the funds transferred to you. Do not delay to
write me because now my life is in-balance. If you delay to reply me, it
means you are giving me the impression that you are not willing and I will
source for another option. I wait to read from you.

Mrs. Grace Ama




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