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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: "Jacob Khumalo" <jacobkhumalo1@umpire.com>
Date: Mon, 3 Dec 2018 15:18:20 +0100
Subject: Your response

My Friend,
 
            
                With due respect to your person and great sincerity of purpose in which I decide to contact you as I believe you will be of great assistance to me. Meanwhile, it’s just my urgent need for foreign partner that made me to contact you for this transaction. I am a banker by profession from South African and currently holding the post of Director Auditing and Accounting unit of the bank. I have the opportunity of transferring the left over funds ($4.2million) of one of my bank clients who died along with his entire family in a plane crash. You can confirm the genuiness of the deceased death by clicking on this web site. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/859479.stm
 
Hence, I am inviting you for a business deal where this money can be shared between us in the ratio of 60/40. If you agree to my business proposal. Further details of the transfer will be forwarded to you as soon as I receive your return mail.
  
I await your response.
 
J.Khumalo

Anti-fraud resources: