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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: Kathleen DeFays <rshmst774@gmail.com>
Reply-To: inbkrb@aol.de
Date: Tue, 28 Mar 2023 17:41:53 -0700
Subject: PLEASE WORK WITH ME

Greetings,

My Name is Mrs. Kathleen DeFays, from Belgium. I know that this
message will be a surprise to you. Firstly, I married to my late
husband for thirty years without a child, my husband died in a fatal
motor accident. Since his death I decided not to marry again because
of my age and unfortunately we don't have a child, my doctor confided
in me that I have less chances to live.

My late husband, was A gold merchant who owns a small gold Mine in
Dubai; During his lifetime he deposited the sum of € 8.5 Million
Euros) Eight million, Five hundred thousand Euros in a bank in
Ouagadougou the capital city of Burkina Faso in West Africa. The
deposited money was from the sale of the shares, death benefits
payment and entitlements of my deceased husband by his company.
Because my late husband was one of the first people to discover a
large quantity of gold in Burkina Faso when buying from a French
company there .

I am sending this message to you praying that it will reach you in
good health, since I am not in good health in which I sleep every
night without knowing if I may be alive to see the next day. I have
been suffering from cancer for a long time and presently I am
partially suffering from a stroke illness which has become almost
impossible for me to move around. I decided to contact you to claim
the fund since I don't have any relation, I grew up
from the orphanage home,

I have decided to donate what remains to you for the support of
helping Motherless babies/Less privileged/Widows' because I am dying
and diagnosed with cancer about 2 years ago. I have been touched by
God Almighty to donate from what I have inherited from my late
husband to you for the good work of God Almighty. I have asked
Almighty God to forgive me and believe he has, because He is a
Merciful God, I will be going in for an operation soon.

This is the reason I need your services to stand as my next of kin or
an executor to claim the funds for charity purposes. If this money
remains unclaimed after my death, the bank executives or the
government will take the money as unclaimed fund and maybe use it for
what I don’t know, as everyone knows in that country is terrorist
attack and military coup, so is a risk keeping the fund there when
I don’t have any hope to live.

So i will instruct the bank to transfer this fund to you as a
foreigner but you have to promise me that you will take 40% of the
total money for your personal use While 60% of the money will go to
charity, Orphanage and less Privileges" and helping the Needy. I
grew up as an Orphan and I don't have anybody as my family member,
just to ensure that the house of God is maintained. Am doing this so
that God will forgive my sins and accept my soul because this
sickness has suffered me so much.

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 funds will be
transferred to your bank account.

Thanks,
Mrs. Kathleen DeFays.

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