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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: <npellegrino@paradiseautos.com>
Date: 25 Sep 2023 20:19:40 -0400
Subject: =?UTF-8?B?Q2FyZWZ1bCwgaXQncyBpbXBvcnRhbnQ=?=


Hi.
I have very bad news for you. Unfortunately, your private data was compromised.

Your password was compromised through a legitimate website, and that led to events that I will explain to you now.
Using your password, our team gained access to your email. We analyzed all data and after going through found a vector for an attack.
That attack was a success. The result was that your machine was infected with a virus/backdoor. Our team uses individual approach to every victim, our success rate is very high.

We have gained access to the data, but the most interesting part that we are able to control your webcam and microphone.

And you are correct. We have a nice archive with exploding video content.
It's all good, but we are here to make money. So if you don't want those videos to be leaked, please follow the instructions.

You pay $750 USD, and there will be nothing to worry about. No chats, no photos, nothing. Every single file will be deleted and virus removed from your machine

Use Bitcoin to make the transfer. Wallet address is 1J7RYCYp8D7zYoAAR4HQDXujaRU6D9tDbf , it's unique and we will know that you made the payment immediately.
You have 2 days to make the transfer, that's reasonable.
Take care.

Anti-fraud resources: