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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: "Mr Pieter Swart" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <mr.pieterswart@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 11 Nov 2016 14:04:00 +0200
Subject: Contract Project; Department of Mineral Resources

Department of Mineral Resources
234 Visagie Street,
Pretoria, 0002
South Africa

ATTENTION: THE PRESIDENT/C.E.O

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am Mr Pieter Swart the Contract award committee Chairperson.

Terms of Reference

My term of reference involves the award of contracts to multinational companies.

My office is saddled with the responsibility of contract award, screening, categorization and prioritization of projects embarked upon by Department of Petroleum Resources (DMR) as well as feasibility studies for selected projects and supervising the project consultants involved. A breakdown of the fiscal expenditure by this office as at the end of the last fiscal quarter of 2015 indicates that DMR paid out a whooping sum of US$936M (Nine Hundred And Thirty Six Million, United States Dollars) to successful contract beneficiaries. The DMR is now compiling the list of beneficiaries to be paid during the next batch which will take-off from this fourth quarter till second quarter of next year (2017).

The crux of this letter is that the finance/contract department of the DMR deliberately over-invoiced the contract value of the various contracts awarded. In the course of disbursements, this department has been able to accumulate the sum of US$50M (Fifty Million, U.S Dollars) as the over-invoiced sum. This money is currently in a suspense account of the DMR account with the Debt Reconciliation Committee (DRC). We now seek to process the transfer this fund officially as contract payment to you as a foreign contractor, who will be fronting for us as the beneficiary of the fund. In this way we can facilitate these funds into your nominated account for possible investment abroad. We are not allowed as a matter of government policy to operate any foreign account to transfer this fund into.

However, for your involvement in assisting us with this transfer into your nominated account we have evolved a sharing formula as follows:

(1) 45% for you as the foreign partner
(2) 50% for me
(3) 5% will set aside to defray all incidental expenses both locally and internationally during the course of this transaction by me and you.

I shall be relying on your advice as regard investment of our share in any business in your country. Be informed that this business is genuine and 100% safe considering the high-power government officials involved. Contact me via this e-mail for confidential purpose.

Upon your response I shall provide you with further information on the procedures.

Looking forward to a good business relationship with you.

Sincerely.
Mr Pieter Swart
Director Project Implementation
Department of Mineral Resources

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