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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: "Melvin Bruce" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <melvinbruce656@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 11 Mar 2010 17:55:53 +0200
Subject: [Spam] Will you be partner wiith me

Chairman Contract Tenders Board
National Electric Regulator
I will Appreciate your response to my business initiation and hoping that we would be of mutual interest/benefit to each in this venture.
 
Business Introduction.
 
We Are The Contract Tenders Board, For Contract Tenders/Awards Approvals In The National Electricity Regulator (NER) South Africa. Our Duties Include Evaluation, Vetting, Approval For Payment Of Contract Jobs Done For NER, Etc.
 
On The 15th Of June, 2007 The Committee Awarded A Contract Of US$270 Million United States Dollars To The Consortium Of Arrummus, J.G.C. Corporation Of Japan, Bouygues Offshore And A Joint Venture Of Spiebatignoles And Fouguerolle, For An Engineering, Procurement And Construction of Power plants and Service Grid In South Africa to improve the power supply to the nation before the 2010 would cup.
But My Colleagues And I Decided To Over-Inflate The Contract Sum To The Tune Of Us$282.5m , With The Intention Of keeping The Remaining Us$12.5 Million Among Ourselves for investment, before Submitting The Final Tender To The Government For Approval. The Government Has Since Approved The Amount Of Us$282.5 Million For Us As The Contract Sum Now That The Contracts Has Been 95 Completed, But Since These Companies Are Entitled To Us$270 Million, We Intend To Transfer The Remaining Us$12.5 Million U.S Dollars Abroad Into Any Safe And Reliable Account To Be Disbursed Among Ourselves.
 
After Much Deliberation, My Colleagues And I Have Agreed That You Or Your Company Can Act As The Beneficiary To This Fund (Us$12.5m) It May Interest You To Know That Four Years Ago, A Similar Transaction Was Carried Out With One Mr. Patrice Miller, The President Of Craine International Trading Corporation At Number 135 East 57th Street, 28th Floor, New York, 10022 With Telephone Number (212) 308-7788. After The Agreement Between Both Partners In Which He Was To Take 40% Of The Money While The Remaining 60% For Us. With All The Required Documents Signed, The Money Was Duly Transferred Into His Account Only To Be Disappointed On Our Arrival In New York And We Were Reliably Informed That Mr. Patrice Miller Was No Longer On That Address, While His Telephone And Fax Numbers Have Been Reallocated To Somebody Else Or Abandoned. That Was How We Lost Us$5.5 Million To Mr. Patrice Miller.
This Time Around We Need A More Reliable And Trustworthy Person or A Reputable Company's Account To Transfer This Money (Us$12.5 Million) Into. Hence This Letter To You.
Please Be Informed That The Personalities Involved In This Transaction Are Top And Influential Government Functionaries Who Would Not Like Any Form Of Exposure And As Such Would Want You To Keep This Business A Top Secret And Confidential. And Be Rest Assured That This Transaction Is 100% Risk Free. There Is No Risk Involved On Both Sides as we have modalities on ground to release this fund out as a subcontract to you or your company, which has already been completed.
 
If you are willing to proceed on this, then let me know so that more details will be provided and also the document you need to apply for this fund sent to you.
 
Please, Your Response Is Urgently Needed with a contact number to reach.
Yours Faithfully,
Mr.Melvin Bruce
Tel: +27731562016
Fax: +27865711287
Email: melvinbruce911@gmail.com

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