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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: Margaret Spencer <monica432662@gmail.com>
Reply-To: margaretspencer543@gmail.com
Date: Wed, 16 Feb 2022 21:29:33 +0100
Subject: My choice for you

Good day my dear friend,
I call you my friend even though I do not know you but from what i am going
to share with you here,you will have reason to appreciate me and accept mea
as your good friend indeed.

Before I proceed, please permit me to intriduce myself,I am Ms.Margaret
Spencer, a 67 Years old widow of Late Michael Spencer who died alongside
our only child David in a Plane crash on Monday the 7th of September 1998
while they were flying from New York to Geneva.

Because my husband was a successful businessman and a philanthropist,we
usually give support to the less privileged,donating most of our assets and
funds to charity.This is the gesture we continued with untill the death of
my husband.

However at one time,my husband told me a story of how he received an
anonymous help from a stranger he met through the internet who gave him
a lot of money through which he became successful in life,my husband made
me to make him a promise that even if he die,i should not fail to
reciprocate the same gesture to another individual and that I am willing to
accomplish now.

Unfortunately i am down with cancer which after several failed
surgeries,the doctors at the hospital concluded that i may not live till
the next two months.In as much as i am a Christian and believe in God's
miracle,i want to use this opportunity to accomplish the promise i made to
my late husband by locating an unknown individual and reciprocate that
gesture which my husband received from the stranger many years ago that
made him successful.

I am very happy to search and locate you by the spirit of God to
reciprocate the gesture to you as the stranger i am looking for.I have
searched for several people but the Spirit of God instead redirected me to
you so i will like you to become the beneficiary and next of kin to the
money we have left in the bank.Because of my health status,I want you to
receive the money before i die.

The money is a total of $15 Million dollars which i left in my the bank
account with the American Express bank and I have instructed my bank
manager to assist whoever I will be introducing to him to receive the
money.So wll be introducing you to the bank manager to receive the money.


One thing i will plead is that when you receive the money,please try to
give out at least %15 to the poor and indigent people around especially
those affected by the harsh economic condition of the Covid-19
Pandemic.They will in turn reciprocate the gesture to others and it
continues like that.This will help me to accomplish as my parting gift to
humanity.

I will only need you to send me your full names and contact address to
write an authorization letter to my bank manager to release the money to
you.

However i will like this to be an anonymous donation,i will not like you to
disclose about the money to anybody until you receive it because i have
couple of people around me who would have loved i gift them the money.I
cannot give them the money because they will use it for their selfish
interest and they will not be happy with me if they get to find out that i
have given the money to someone else,

I would like everything to be done in your name. You will only need to
swear an affidavit from a lawyer through the directive of the bank which i
will be introducing you to change my name on the certificate to your name
as the beneficiary before sending the money to you.

So if you will accept my offer,I would like you to send me the information
to my email margaretspencer543@gmail.com so I can write my authorization
letter to my bank manager to release the money to you.

await your response

With love and regards from your friend.

Ms.Margaret Spencer

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