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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: "WILLIAM POKER" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <atmcentre312@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 4 Aug 2022 04:08:57 +0100
Subject: RE:THIS IS FOR YOUR ATTENTION

Dear Friend,

My name is William Poker, I am a practicing attorney here in Germany. My late client, an American who was a consultant with Shell UK LTD here in Germany died with his family aboard Egypt Air Flight 990, which crashed into the Atlantic Ocean on October 31st, 1999 (news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/Americas/502503.stm), and left no beneficiary with respect to an account with total sum of Five million Euros that has not been operated on for the past 20 years as a result of his death.

I am seeking your co -operation to present you as the next of kin to the account. Contact me so as to give you more details. Thanks and Please treat it as confidential.

I await your urgent response.

Best Regards
Barr. William Poker.

Anti-fraud resources: