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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: "Mr. Ari Lae" <rogersscott5550558@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 6 Oct 2021 18:08:00 +0200
Subject: AW: support of helping Motherless babies/Less privileged/Widows

My Greetings

I am Mr. Ari Lae, from Finland’ the husband of late millionaire Mrs.
Anna Herlin Lae. We have been married for years before her sudden
death. I have been diagnosed with cancer and I have been battling with
the sickness when my late lovely wife was alive.

My Wife left the sum of €5 million Euros in a fix/suspense account in
one of the financial institutions in Europe. Recently, my Doctor told
me that I would not exceed more than five more months due to cancer
problem.

The one that disturbs me most is my blood pressure sickness. Having
known my condition I decided to seek for your kind assistance to
transfer this fund into your account. I have decided to donate what I
have to you for the support of helping Motherless babies/Less
privileged/Widows' because I am dying and diagnosed of cancer for
about 2 years ago. I have been touched by God Almighty to donate from
what I have inherited from my late wife to you for good work of God
Almighty. I have asked Almighty God to forgive me and believe he has,
because He is a Merciful God

This is the reason i need your services to stand as an executor to
claim the funds for charity purposes. If this money remains unclaimed
after my death, the financial institutions executives or the
government will take the money as unclaimed fund and maybe use it for
selfish and worthless ventures, I need a very honest person who can
claim this money and use it for Charity works, for orphanages, widows
and also build schools for less privilege that will be named after my
late wife and my name; I need your urgent answer to know if you will
be able to execute this project, and I will give you more information
on how the fund will be transferred to your bank account.

Please can you treat this as confidential and keep it as a secret for
security reasons between both of us.

My Best Regards.

Mr. Ari Lae.

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