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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 about the following email:

Fraud email example:

From: mrsgertrude@canada.com
Date: Thu, 23 Mar 2006 07:21:02 -1200
Subject: Greetings to you and your family,


>From The Desk Of Ms.
Ntombazana Gertrude Winifred Botha
the Deputy Minister of Arts and Culture
Government of the Republic of South Africa.

Greetings to you and your family,

Please it is with warm heart that I offer my friendship and
greetings and I hope this mail meets you in good time,
however strange or surprising this contact might seem to you
as we have not met personally or had any dealings in the
past, I humbly ask that you take due consideration of it's
importance and the immense benefit it will be to you and my
family. After careful consideration with my children, we
resolved to contact you for your most needed assistance in
this manner. I duly apologize for infringing on your
privacy, if this contact is not acceptable to you, as I make
this proposal to you as a person of integrity.

First and foremost I wish to introduce myself properly. My
name is Ms. Ntombazana Gertrude Winifred Botha the Deputy
Minister of Arts and Culture Government of the Republic of
South Africa since 29 April 2004. You can go through my
profile

<http://www.info.gov.za/leaders/depmin/artscult.htm>

I will now give you a general overview of the situation.
When I was sworn in as Deputy Minister of Provincial and
Local Government in 30 May 2001-29 April 2004, with my
influence,my husband, late Mr. Radabe G. Botha a very
successful businessman was awarded several contracts in my
ministry and had direct dealings with foreign investors in
this field.

Due to my political status I was not involved in my husbands
business which was very vast and successful. My beloved
husband died whilst on an official trip to Trinidad and
Tobago in February 2003.When my husband died,I was contacted
as Next of Kin by a Foreign Financial Institution in
overseas to come forth with the Certificate of Deposit and
claim a safety deposit my husband has in their firm in his
name. At that time, my children and I did not have an idea
where the Certificate might be. We then instructed the
Institution to continue holding the safety deposit until
further instructions from me. Whilst preparing for the
second remembrance of my beloved husband, I was going
through his library collection and to my astonishment I
discovered a Certificate of Deposit for the safety deposit
with this private Financial security firm, and other
documents relating to the safety deposit in a file.

The safety deposit according to the documents is available
in trunk with hard currency amounting to Thirty Six Million
United States Dollar with the Finaincial Firm which was
generated from cash payments from his business associates in
the diamond trade and Contracts.Though, I knew my late
husband was in the diamond business but do not have any
knowledge that he moves funds in cash to oversea.

This has come as a shock to me and my children, and we have
decided to have this fund invested immediately in commercial
and residential properties abroad as well as in any
profitable ventures, since no member of my family can hold
such huge amount in our name here considering my political
status and my Position here in the Government I cannot be
able to execute these business myself or any of my family
member to aviod being probed or questioned by the
Government, hence we sincerely appeal to you to render us
your most needed assistance in this regard.

If you agree to render us your assistance, your role in this
project will be to act on my behalf as a trustee/business
associate to my Late Husband to receive the safety deposit
funds from the Security firm, are you clear?.Though,I
believe this transaction should be based on mutuality,a
family associate, who is a diplomat will protect my family's
interest. He is now aware of the safety deposit, and I have
informed him that I am locating one of my Late husband's
business associate to handle the funds and invest on our
behalf, as he might be opposed to our decision if he found
out that I barely know you.

The part of services the diplomat is required to render is
to assist you in claiming the consignments from the terminal
of the security company and to set up a transit domiciliary
account in your name in one of the prime bank he has
contacts to carry out the exercise through the back door.

The purpose of the account is to enable you deposit the
funds for further transfer into your nominated bank account.
For your reliable assistance, we are offering you 20% of the
funds. I wish to thank you in advance as we anticipate your
assistance in enabling us achieve this goal. On hearing from
you, I will forward your contact to the diplomat who will be
representing us,and also give you his contact for both of
you to communicate and proceed with the transaction. He will
be working with you for a mutual conclusion of the process
and I look forward to a long lasting business relationship
with you.

As you may understand, due to my sensitive position in the
present government, it is not safe to communicate with me
via phone or fax for now as all my comunications are well
monitored.

With warm regards,
MS. Ntombazana Gertrude Winifred Botha.

----------------------------------------
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