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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: <lcarpio@paradiseautos.com>
Date: 4 Jun 2021 03:58:30 -0100
Subject: =?UTF-8?B?V2l0aCByZWZlcmVuY2UgdG8geW91ciBjbG91ZCBzdG9yYWdl?=


Greetings,
I am sorry to inform you that your cloud storage was compromised.
Let’s get the biggest elephant out of the room first.
I am not a part of shady group that encrypts your data and extorts money =
leaving you no choice. But I HAVE copied your data.
The choice is yours.

Here is what happened, one of the websites where you have an account was =
breached.
After that I got access to your password from that breach and with some =
advanced manipulations and bruteforce extracted your backup data.
The data set that I have downloaded and parsed contains pictures, =
documents, contacts and more including some deleted files.
I don't have much time and dedication NOW to go through all of the =
files, but with some fast looking I did - I am sure that you dont want =
some of them to be seen by other people.

What I can do if you don't follow my instructions is simple.
I can send from your name to your contacts the most interesting content, =
it's the least I can do. You may care or not, it's up to you to decide.
If you decide that you don't care, I will go through all files, and who =
knows what more I may find more.
Maybe you have some confidential business information. Or GREAT nudes =
and videos.=20

If I spend more time on your case, the amount will be 3 times bigger. =
Depends on the content.
So let's make it simple. You pay me $2000 USD, I delete the data, you =
change your password.
Business as usual, use Bitcoin to make the transfer.
13gdUqbxkC2TQPmaHLuMsTatATz6jHCwkp
Account is unique and you have some reasonable time to make the =
payment.
Take care.

Anti-fraud resources: