419 scam: "Engr. Shola Williams"<sholawilly@smart-mail.de> With Much Respect

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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:

An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
This email uses a separate reply address that is different from the sender address. Spammers use this to get replies even when the original spam sending accounts have been shut down. Also, sometimes the sender addresses are legitimate looking but fake and only the reply address is actually an email account controlled by the scammers.
The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "from the desk of" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "contract award committee" (the name of a person or institution often appearing in 419 scams)
This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
This email lists free webmail addresses. Use of such addresses is typical for scams. Lotteries, banks and any but the smallest of companies do not normally use such addresses. Criminals use them to anonymously send and receive email at Internet cafes.
- engrsholawilly1@hotmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)

Fraud email example:

From: "Engr. Shola Williams" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <engrsholawilly1@hotmail.com>
Date: Thu, 19 May 2011 14:16:18 +0100
Subject: With Much Respect

FROM THE DESK OF, THE CHAIRMAN,
CONTRACT AWARD COMMITTEE, NIGERIAN
NATIONAL PETROLEUM CORPORATION.
E-Mail: engrsholawilly1@hotmail.com

With Much Respect,

This is to bring to your notice that the contract executed by William Bryant has since been approved for payment to him.Unfortunately I learnt that he died on January 31, 2000 in the planecrash of Alaska Airlines flight 261 alongside other passengers. The payment of this contract was approved since last April, 2010 with hopes that the next of kin to William Bryant will come over and claim the fund. Since his death and since the contract was approved for payment, we have been expecting his next of kin or any family member to come and claim his contract fund but nobody came up. After waiting in vain for his relation or next of kin to come and claim the fund I therefore decided to contact you so that you can stand as his next of kin and claim the contract fund that has been approved to paid to him. I took the decision so that both of us will share the fund instead of the money being lost to top government. .

Engr Shola Williams, Chairman Contract
Award Committee Nigerian National
Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

Anti-fraud resources:

What can you do when you receive 419 spam