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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: "Mr. Charles Koch" <charles.koch961@gmail.com>
Reply-To: charles_koch@myself.com
Date: Wed, 8 Sep 2021 11:41:28 -0700
Subject:

*Hi, My name is Mr. Charles Koch, an elder brother to the late Mr. David
Hamilton Koch a philanthropist and the founder of Koch Industries, one of
the largest private foundations in the world. Mr. David Hamilton Koch
believed strongly in giving while living and had one idea that never
changed in his mind, that you should use your wealth to help people and he
decided to give USD2,000,000.00 Million Dollars to randomly selected
individuals worldwide before his death on the 23rd of August 2019.On
receipt of this email, you should count yourself as the lucky individual.
Kindly get back to me at your earliest convenience, so that I will know
your email address is valid. Email me at (charles_koch@myself.com
<charles_koch@myself.com>) you can also visit the web page of late Mr.
David Hamilton Koch to know more about the Hamilton Foundation and this
grant: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_H._Koch
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_H._Koch>Regards,Mr. Charles Koch*

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