Look Out!!!! Everyone operating on the Internet, just like life itself, is not always as they appear. Look Out!!!! is our scambuster warning page, and if you know of any existing scams currently doing the rounds, we, and our readers would most definitely like to hear from you. Take this e-mail that arrived in our office just yesterday, I kid you not. I'll say no more, have a look... "Robert Mattison Tel+27-83-000000 Fax+27-83-000000 ATTN: PRESIDENT/DIRECTOR Please excuse my personnel approach. I am a principal accountant with the Department of works and Housing in the Republic of South Africa. I am wondering if perhaps you might consent to assist me in a highly pressing financial transfer requiring speed and confidentiality. My colleagues and I have arranged to transfer to a nominated foreign bank account the sum of USD$18.5Million Dollars from over-invoicing of a capital project (contract) and supply to our department. Up till now, payments for foreign contractors and suppliers are dispatched to nominated foreign bank account beneficiaries through an operational structure that my colleagues and I occupy. However, for obvious reasons we cannot present ourselves or use our personal bank accounts as beneficiaries of this said amount because we are public servants and are prohibited from operating or transferring large funds through our private bank account. Therefore, I was entrusted with the task of transferring the money to an overseas bank account for privacy and investment purposes. I would deeply oblige you to kindly present yourself, if you can on our behalf as the beneficiary of the USD18.5 Million Dollars. We have taken the necessary precaution in securing all documentation with regards to a safe transaction to avoid suspicion and unnecessary delays, and we are anxious to transfer the money out of an Escrow account to avoid detection of the anomaly. I decided to contact you with the hope that your background presents an ideal candidate to trust with a transaction of this magnitude. If you should decide to assist us; it is our intention to let you have 30% of the total money transferred into your bank account, while 5% will be set aside as refund for any outlays or expenses incurred in executing the transfer. However, I need the following information to enable me create a file for you in our department as the beneficiary, and to demand for payment with your account particulars. 1. Your Current Bank Details or Company Account Details. 2 Full Names and Address of Beneficiary. 3.Telephone/Fax numbers (private/office). Please, Note that this is strictly private and confidential transaction and we expect you to respect its anonymity. You can always contact me on the e-mail address or the above telephone/fax lines. Thanks for your anticipated co-operation. Best Regards Robert Mattison" _____________________________________________________________________ Do These People Think We Were Born Yesterday? Do they really think we are going to dish out our confidential banking information to someone on the other side of the planet we've never met or spoken to before? Come on get real! It's a con, of course it is, and if you receive any similar communications we are sure you know the best place to dump them. We've changed the telephone numbers to save people ringing them up, we couldn't have people pestering them now could we? It is of course a variation on the Nigerian 419 Scam. What is the 419 Scam?  We received this communique from our friends in Australia at Adpost last week. Let them explain:   From Adpost.com Classifieds. Our classifieds community continues to grow rapidly.  Today we have millions of individuals and businesses who interact through our online classifieds service. But scamsters also recognize the potential of cyberspace.  The same scams that have been conducted by snail-mail and phone have found their way into the world-wide-web and into e-mail.  A handful of members have experienced such scams, and urged that we alert others in the community. As you are a recent member, we are offering the following tips. ..Please Read On... =============================================== 1. Protecting Yourself against Cyberspace Scams =============================================== You can protect yourself by learning how to spot the danger signs of scams.  Common scam techniques are given below. If a buyer promises a cashiers check/money order/Western Union that overpays you, and then requests that you wire the difference to them after keeping some for yourself, beware!  Scamsters who adopt this method typically use forged or bogus checks, and it's not difficult to realize who's overpaying who. If you receive an reply from someone in Africa/Nigeria/Abidjan who claims to have millions of dollars from a dead husband/father/brother and wants you to help get the money out of their country - it just sounds too good to be true!  This is commonly known as the Nigerian 419 scam, and is named after the corresponding penal code of Nigeria. If a seller offers his goods at an unbelievably low price, you should ascertain if he's credible.  Some scamsters take your money and run, leaving you with nothing but a lighter wallet.  Pay by credit card where possible.  In most cases, you can dispute credit card charges for non-delivery of goods.  You can also use an intermediary service such as escrow.  For a small fee, an escrow service holds the payment, forwarding it to the seller only when the buyer has received the goods in working order.  An escrow service will also act as a mediator in times of dispute. If you do use an escrow service, please note that there are scamsters who set up fake escrow sites to facilitate their scams.  If someone suggests using an escrow service other escrow.com then it is probably fake. Adpost.com Classifieds provides a primarily free service.  With postings that run into the hundreds of thousands daily, we can't monitor every single Ad or Reply.  It is our whole community that comes together to fend off the scamsters and those who abuse our service.  If you do come across any dubious people, please let us know and we'll remove them. If in Doubt, Don't! It says it all doesn't it. What is that old saying? A fool and his money are easily parted. Well we aint fools, and I'm sure you aren't either. If you have any doubts about any business proposal especially ones that appear via unsolicited emails ask someone else, pereferably a qualified person like a solicitor or lawyer  to give it the once over. If it looks too good to be true it probably is! Your comments and information on any similar scams are most welcome to homemax6@aol.com