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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: "Mrs. Pulane Msimang" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <mrs.pulane57@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 10 Feb 2011 02:47:59 +0200
Subject: From Mrs. Pulane Msimang

>From Mrs. Pulane Msimang
 
Hello,
 
I don't want you to feel embarrassed receiving this letter in your email
since we don't know each other before now. Here is a woman that is
desperately in need of help and when somebody is desperate, he or she is
bound to do anything. My name is Mrs. Pulane Msimang, a mother of three
children and the daughter of late Dr. Manto Tshabalala-Msimang the former
South African Health Minister who died on 16 December 2009. You can view her
biography through the below link.
 
http://www.news24.com/Content/SouthAfrica/News/1059/24ce219a218c4455ad457121e41164ae/16-12-2009-04-21/Manto_Tshabalala-Msimang_biography
 
Last year was a very sad year for me and my entire family as I lost my
mother and my husband the same year. I lost my husband Mr. Edide Christopher
on the 18 January, 2009. While he was on an official trip to Cyprus. I am
aware that he deposited the sum of Eight Million Euro with a bank in Europe.
That is part of the money he made through my mother's ministry between 1999
and 2008  from contract the government of South Africa awarded him, which my
mother stood strongly to make sure that my late husband is the right person
for the contract. However, the contract was not completed before his death
and the Government of South Africa is planning to set up a committee to
probe unfinished contracts between 1999 to date and if this fund is
discovered to have been deposited by my husband in this bank, it will be
confiscated and this will shake my political ambition and destroy my
mother's legacy. For this reason, I deliberated with my children and they
are all in support of this plan to solicit for help from somebody to help us
to provide a bank account in which the fund will be transferred. As I am
writing this email to you, every arrangement to move this fund out of the
bank has been put in place pending a bank account with which to apply for
the fund to be transferred into since we want to permanently close the bank
account to avoid tracing back the money to my family after the money has
been transferred out of the account.
 
As a result of our deliberation, Two Million Euro will be given to you for
your kind assistance. An agreement must be reached between you and I to
assure me and my three children that you will not elope with our fund.
 
Due to my sensitive position, I will not want you to call me on phone to
discuss this development, otherwise somebody might be listening or we end up
talking to ourselves on a bugged phone. To be free from this, send a return
mail before I can discuss the issue with my son and the bank who will
continue the discussion both on phone and email with you, which means for
now, all correspondence must be by email.
 
If you are kind enough to render my family this assistance, it will be to
our pleasure to receive your response.
 
Thanking you for your anticipated co-operation and God bless you. I will
send to you the statement of account relating to this fund we received from
the bank recently and other relevant documents to you for your view and
trust as soon as I receive your reply.
 
Yours truly,
Mrs. Pulane Msimang

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