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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: MACKENZIE SCOTT <oficliefilies@gmail.com>
Reply-To: mackenzie_bezos@aol.com
Date: Sun, 7 Aug 2022 07:23:58 +0100
Subject: CONGRATULATIONS ,

My name is MacKenzie Scott Tuttle,

I am an American novelist and philanthropist, ex-wife of Amazon
founder Jeff Bezos, who later became the founder and CEO of Amazon. I
firmly believe in giving while living.

My life philosophy is that you should use your wealth to help people
and I have decided to secretly give US$1,500,000.00 USD to randomly
selected people around the world.

Upon receiving this email, you should consider yourself the lucky
person. Your email address was chosen online while searching random.

Please contact me as soon as possible so I know your email address is valid.

You can visit the web page to know more about me:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacKenzie_Bezos

Cheers,
Mackenzie Scott. tuttle

Anti-fraud resources: