About this Project

The South African Police Service established a Task Team within the Commercial Branch to investigate 419 scams.

Introduction

The aim of this team is to reduce the amount of Nigerian 419 and Lottery Scam letters circulating through the Internet by forcing hosting and phone service providers to immediately suspend services to fraudsters, or else face severe criminal and civil actions, which could ultimately lead to the closure or liquidation of such service and hosting providers.

Nigerian 419 scam and Lottery Scam letters are currently flooding the e-mail boxes of innocent Internet users and website users. Most people ignore these letters, but the fact is that many people fall victim to these scams and lose thousands of US Dollars. The Nigerian 419 Scam is currently the world’s largest scam in terms of monetary losses.

419 fraudsters are arrested continually throughout South Africa as well as around the world. The problem is that upon the arrest of one fraudster two more are replacing him/her and continuing the mailing of 419 scam letters.

In addition to the losses incurred by the victims to the losses incurred by the victims, many people who do not fall victims become frustrated by the never-ending stream of e-mails filling up their Inboxes and are very keen for this type of spam to be stopped. It is a fact that not all offenders can be traced, due to their use of modern technology.

Most service providers have been requested by Law Enforcement agencies around the world to remove websites and e-mail addresses of fraudsters when they are identified. The hosting providers simply refuse to do so and repeatedly demand court orders to comply with requests. This is an impossible situation for Law Enforcement agencies. Our service will change the way in which service providers’ deal with Nigerian 419 fraudsters.

Once a Nigerian 419 letter is reported to us, our legal professionals will confirm whether the letter is indeed a scam. Notifications will then be forwarded to the hosting providers of the websites, e-mail addresses as well as to the telephone operators of the telephone numbers involved.

Once the notification has been served that their technology is being used to commit crime, the service provider will be obliged to act. We will keep record of all processes followed. Once a person falls victim to a Nigerian 419 Scam he or she can contact us to determine whether a hosting provider was notified of the client using the account for criminal activities.

If so, all our documents will then be made available to victims who can use such documents when launching Civil as well as Criminal actions against hosting providers and phone operators who did not act after they were notified of irregularities. Our team of legal experts will also be available to give testimony in any trial.

The aims of this project:

The aim of this project will be as follows:

Identify Fraudulent websites and blacklist as such
Identify fraudulent e-mail addresses and blacklist it as such
Identify telephone numbers and blacklist it as such
Providing a facility whereby searches can be conducted
Bring under the attention of website hosting companies and phone service providers the fact that they are hosting fraudulent websites or e-mail accounts or phone numbers.
Acting against hosting companies and service providers not adhering to requests and continue to assist fraudsters in hosting their sites.

How the Project will operate:

This website shall contain the following services and information:

Information on all reported email addresses of fraudsters
Information on all fraudulent websites
Information on successes achieved during the project
Assistance for victims of scams after service providers were notified and did not act
Information on 419 scams
And much more

Results of the project:

The results of this project will lead to 419 fraudsters being unable to receive replies from victims as their accounts will be closed the moment we receive the e-mail and notified the hosting company.

Websites of fraudsters will be closed down affecting credibility of their e-mails sent to victims.

Fraudsters will be frustrated as they will receive no replies from victims leaving their e-mails worthless.

Protecting Victims:

This service is dedicated to protecting victims against 419 and lottery scams. In affect, the only institutions that can prevent these crimes are hosting and phone service providers. Should these institutions refuse to take actions against fraudsters, they practically assist in the promotion of the crime. Victims will have access to all our information and evidence, which can be used in civil and criminal actions against these institutions.