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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.

 

 

Fraud email example:

From: "chris douglas" <infodmiengr@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: chrisdouglasdmi@yahoo.com
Date: Mon, 12 Dec 2005 12:01:24 -0600
Subject: Department of Mineral & Energy (DME).

Department of Mineral & Energy (DME).
Republic of South Africa,
Pretoria.

Dear Prospective Partner


I am Engr.Chris Douglas,a native of Cape Town in South
Africaand I am an Engineer working with the South
Africa Department of Mining & Energy.

First and foremost I apologise for using this medium
to reach you for a transaction of this magnitude but
this is due to confidentiality and prompt access
reposed on this medium.

Be informed that a member of the South Africa Export
Promotion Council (SEPC) who was part of my government
delegation to your country during a recent Trade
Exhibition gave your enviable credentials/particulars
to me while assuring me on your competence to handle a
business transaction involving a large sum of money
with absolute confiden entiality.

Therefore I have decided to seek a confidential
co-operation with you in the execution of the deal
described hereunder for the benefit of all parties and
while hoping you will keep it as top secret because of
the nature of this transaction.

Within the Department of Mining & Energy where I work
as a Director and with the cooperation of three other
top officials,we have in our possession an overdue
contract payment bills totalling Sixteen Million,Four
Hundred Thousand United States
Dollars($16,400,000.00).This money which we intend to
process its transfer as a form of contract payment
into a reliable company/individual account depending
on your convenience.

Your assistance and co-operation is required due to
the
circumstances surrounding our work as Government
officials whereby the South Africa Civil Service Code
of Conduct does not allow us to operate an Offshore
Bank account hence your importance in the whole
transaction.

Presently, this amount ($16.4M) representing the
balance of the total contract value executed on behalf
of my Department by a foreign contracting firm which
we the officials over-invoiced deliberately is lying
unclaimed in the Government Escrow Bank Account with
the Reserve Bank of South Africa.We hereby seek your
assistance and co-operation that will enable us to
process this sum of money to you as a form of contract
payment.

We have the necessary authority to validate and
forward approvals of outstanding contract claims to
the Government for final payment on approval through
the Reserve Bank of South Africa (RSBA).

All partners agreed while mandating me to propose that
should you be willing to assist us in the transaction,
your share of the sum will be 20% of the $16.4
million,70% will be for us,5% for Charity
Organisations and 5% for any expenses incurred during
the course of this project including telephone and fax
bills.

The business itself is 100% safe on your part provided
you treat it with utmost secrecy and
confidentiality.Also note that your area of
specialisation is not an hindrance to the successful
execution of this transaction.

I have reposed my confidence in you while awaiting
your prompt response and i know that you will not let
me down when the funds have been transferred into any
account that you will nominate.

Finally on your part, we will appreciate you treat
this transaction as confidential as possible, while we
assure you of a 100% risk free transaction provided
you follow our instruction religiously.

I await your confirmation of my message while praying
that this will be the begining of a lifelong
partnership between us.

Thank you for your co-operation.

Yours faithfully,

Engr.Chris Douglas


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