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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: Susan Smith <susansmt60@gmail.com>
Reply-To: susansmt22@gmail.com
Date: Thu, 16 Sep 2021 09:48:55 +0100
Subject: Greetings

Hello Beloved,

Greetings to you and may the Lord be with you, it is true that this
letter may come to you as a surprise but nevertheless, I humbly ask
for your attention and hear me well. My name is Mrs. Susan Smith I am
54 years old and I am married to Mr. William Smith, and we were
married for a period of 30 years before he died in 2017.

We were married for 30 years without a child and he died after a brief
illness and since his death I decided not to remarry due to my
religious belief and old age. When my late husband was alive he
deposited the sum of Eight million five hundred thousand Euros (8.5
Million Euros) with a Bank here. Presently this money is still in the
custody of the Bank. Recently, my Doctor told me that I would not last
for the next four months due to my cancer illness.

Having known my condition I decided to donate this money to churches,
organizations or good people that will utilize this fund the way I am
going to instruct for a proper idea on how this fund would be used.

I want you to use this money for charity organizations, orphanages,
widows and other people that are in need. I took this decision because
I don't have any child that will inherit this money. Moreover, my
husband's relatives are not close to me since I developed cancer
illness and it had been their wish to see me dead so as to enable them
to inherit his wealth hence we have no Child. These people are not
worthy of this inheritance. This is why I am taking this decision to
contact you and donate this fund to you for the charity works.And 30%
of this money will be for your time and effort, while 70% goes to
charities.


As soon as I receive your reply, I will give you the contact of the
Bank where this fund is deposited by my deceased husband before his
sudden death, also I will instruct our family lawyer to issue letter
of authorization to the bank that will present you the beneficiary of
this fund and I also want you to always put me in your daily prayer.

Any delay in your reply may give me room to look for another good
person for this same purpose. Please assure me that you will act
accordingly as I stated above.

Thanks and Remain blessed.
Yours sister
Mrs. Susan Smith

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