 Advance fee fraud scammers based in South Africa have in past years reportedly conned people from various parts of the world out of millions of rands.South African police sources stated that Nigerians living in Johannesburg suburbs operate advance fee fraud (419) schemes.In 2002, the South African Minister of Finance, Trevor Manuel, wanted to make a call centre for businesses to check reputations of businesses due to proliferation of scams such as advance fee fraud, pyramid schemes and fly-by-night operators.