I was contacted as a 'WINNER' in a lottery draw that I did not enter. I proceeded with the registration and transfer of my details, but I thought I would see if I could find any of the names given in the correspondence to me in the South African exchange. Not ONE of the names or business names could be found under any searches with the telephone exchange or white and yellow pages. I had several phone calls to the people in the emails ie the 'claims agent' and the 'attourney' that would act on my behalf. They are very convincing and deflect questions quite masterfully by saying 'we can't be a scam as we gave you the option to come over to this country and front up for the claim. We are only acting on your behalf because you cannot come yourself.'
It prompted me to look into fraud sites on the net and that is how I found 419
You know there is still a part of me that wants to believe that I have won $1.5 million and maybe these people are genuine, but until they can prove their ID to me that I have requested so I can check them out, they won't be getting a red cent out of me.