Department of Minerals and Natural Resources ‘Business Proposal’ Scam

According to this email, an official with South Africa’s Department of Minerals and Natural Resources has a confidential business proposal for you.

Supposedly, the official is “in search of an agent to assist us in the transfer of (USD32.5M) and subsequent investment in properties in your country”.  He promises that you will receive 20% of the $32 million in exchange for your assistance.

He urges you to respond to his “confidential email address” if you wish to proceed with the supposed deal.

But, in fact, the email is just another advance fee scam. The email was not sent by the Department of Minerals and Natural Resources or any other legitimate entity.  The million-dollar fund discussed in the message does not exist.

If you participate you risk losing your money and having your identity stolen. And, alas, you have no chance whatsoever of actually receiving any of the promised funds.



After you contact the “Project Allocation Manager”, who is actually just a scammer with a computer an email address, you will be told that you must pay various upfront fees before the “deal” can proceed. The scammer will make some silly excuse as to why these supposed fees cannot be paid out of the fund itself and warn that the deal will fail if you do not pay in advance.

If you do send money, the scammer will likely ask you to send even more. Eventually, he will cease all contact with you.  You will never get your money back.

To make matters even worse, the scammer may have managed to trick you into sending him a large amount of your personal and financial information. This information may later be used to steal your identity.

Advance fee scams like this are very common and have been around in various forms for many decades.

Read more about Advance Fee Scams 

An example of the scam email: