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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: "alec erwin" <alec_erwin2@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: alec_01erwin@myway.com
Date: Fri, 06 Oct 2006 03:17:38 +0200
Subject: CONFINDENCIAL DOCUMENT

FROM: MR ALEC ERWIN
DEPARTMENT: TRADE AND INDUSTRY
REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA
ZANZA BUILDING
116 PROES STREET,
PRETORIA,
P.O BOX 429
PRETORIA 0001.
Phone number +27 739441525,
contact me with this email addres alec_01erwin@myway.com.

ATTN: MD/CEO:


I am writing you this mail in anticipation that it will be strictly
confidential. First and foremost, I would want introduce myself to you. My
name is MR, ALEC ERWIN, a senior accounting officer with the Ministry of
Trade and Industry in the Republic of South Africa. I write to solicit your
sincere co-operation in order to redeem an investment interest currently
being held under Trust under my Department in the Ministry.

The said investment, which is, now valued at USD27.5 MILLION was originally
purchased by Reginald Smith and leased in 1984 to Mineral Investments
Limited. At maturity of the contract in May 2000,several attempts were made
without success to contact Mr. Reginald Smith or any of his relatives in
whose favor the cash value could be made to.

As the Head of accounts in the Department, I have with my project manager
Mr. Merut Moweni carefully initiated the process of filing a claim for the
money with the hope of having the Fund Transferred abroad for investment on
our behalf. As a matter of fact, we would to reach an agreement with you to
arrange payment of the claim in your name. We require that you let us
prepare and file the claim for the money from this Department indicating
your name as the appointed beneficiary of the Fund.

Upon approval of the payment of this claim, you will be paid Twenty seven
and five million United States Dollars (USD27.5Million) and since the money
will be paid directly into your designated bank account in your Country, you
will have the responsibility to ensure that we receive our share of the
money which I and my colleague have decided to offer you 25% for your
assistance while 75% will be our own share. I have to assure you however,
that we are to make the payment of the Fund possible provided you are ready
to meet with us and give us a very strong guarantee that our share of the
fund will be secured and that you would not betray our trust in making the
transfer of the Fund into your Bank account.

This is a very safe and risk-free involvement as it is not prone to any
enquiry since we are all active partners and will not want to loose our
positions in Government. The need to contact you however, is because the
money cannot go into indigenous accounts because the Code of Conduct (COC)
of the Federal Civil Service Commission here in the Republic. It is
imperative to usher you in as a foreign partner so as to avoid suspicion
from unconcerned quarters and most importantly, for fear of loosing our
jobs.

Meanwhile, I demand that you keep this transaction very private and
confidential in view of our personal involvements. Full details of the
processes for the claim will be provided as soon as we receive your response
and acceptance to be part of this agreement. We expect your immediate
response to this urgent request. Please email me on; alec_01erwin@myway.com
,
Kindly adopt and treat accordingly.
Best Regards,
MR ALEC ERWIN,

_________________________________________________________________
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