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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: MERCURY FINANCE BANK <mercuryfinancebank@gmail.com>
Reply-To: drjoe_ifanyi@yahoo.com
Date: Sun, 10 Oct 2021 16:17:33 -0700
Subject: Waiting to hear from you

Hello Dear,

I am Mr Joe Ifanyi, i work with MERCURY FINANCE bank, Please Can you
use ATM Visa card to withdraw money at ATM cash machine in your
country? I want to transfer money to you from my country if you can be
honest with me; it’s part of some money deposited by some old
politicians that were forced out of power.

I will change the account details to yours which you will be
withdrawing money from it and always send my own percentage of the
money, and the amount we are talking about is $5.2Million US dollars.
Whatever amount you withdraw daily, you will send 50% to me and keep
50% for yourself, the bank account will be on your name, i assure you
that this is 100% risk free, I am waiting for your information as soon
as possible,

Your name...........................................
Country.............................................
Phone number........................................

Best Regards.
Mr JOE

Anti-fraud resources: