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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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Fraud email example:

From: robertmalume@inbox.com
Date: Sun, 14 Aug 2005 01:32:48 +0200
Subject: Energy Matters

FROM THE DESK OF MR. ROBERT MALUME
ATTN: THE MANAGING DIRECTOR,

It is my great pleasure to write you this letter on behalf of my colleagues. I got your information from a colleague in the chamber of commerce in my country while searching for a reliable partner to assist in this proposal. I have decided to seek a confidential
co-operation with you in execution of a deal hereunder for the benefit of all parties, and hope you will keep it confidential because of the nature of this business. Within the Department of Mining Resources where I work as the Director of Project Implementation, with co-operation of two other top officials, we have in our possession, an overdue payment in US funds.
The said funds represent certain percentage of the contract value executed on behalf of my Ministry by a foreign contracting firm, which we the officials over-invoiced to the amount of US$US$20.5M. (Twenty Million, Five Hundred Thousand United States Dollars).
Though the actual contract cost has been paid to the original contractor,
leaving the excess balance unclaimed.

The Government of the Republic of South Africa believe that private investment in general, and foreign direct investment in particular, are the real engines for sustainable economic development, for which reason it has continued to encouraged investment in the key growth-oriented sector of Mining with sincere determination to pay foreign contractors
all debts owed to them, so as to continue to enjoy close relationship, and mutually beneficial co-operation with foreign governments and non-governmental financial agencies. As a result we included our bills for approvals with the co-operation of some officials at the
Department of Finance and the Reserve Bank of South Africa (RBSA). We are seeking your assistance to be the beneficiary of the unclaimed funds, since we are not allowed to operate foreign account. The changing of beneficiary's information/ details and other forms of
documentation upon application for claim to reflect the contract money and its approvals will be secured on behalf of your company or your self.

I have the authority of my colleagues involved to propose that, should you be willing to assist us in this transaction your share as compensation will be 30% while my colleagues and I shall receive 65%, and the balance of 5% shall be used to reimburse all expenditures,
taxes and miscellaneous expenses so incurred. It does not matter whether or not your company does contract projects of the nature described here. The assumption is that your company won the major contract and subcontracted it to other companies. More often than not, big trading companies and firms of unrelated fields win major contracts, and subcontract to more specialized firms for execution. This business itself is 100% safe, provided you treat it with utmost confidentiality. Also your specialization is not a hindrance to the successful execution of this mutual beneficiary transaction.
Please kindly notify me for further details if you are interested or not in this proposal by contacting me via email at robertmalume@inbox.com.
Regards,
MR. ROBERT MALUME


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