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joewein.de LLC
fighting spam and scams on the Internet
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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:
- 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.
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Elliot Matare" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <ematare20@secservernet.net>
Date: Fri, 7 Sep 2018 13:29:17 -0700
Subject: Collaboration
Hello there,
I hope this message reaches you in good spirit. My name is Elliot Matare. I got your contact from an online business directory as a reputable industrialist with high integrity. I have a proposition that I think will be of great interest to you. I am the brother in law of a major opposition leader in Mozambique (a South Eastern African Regional country) who is presently at logger head with the ruling party over demands for better integration of its supporters into the police and military as a precondition of a peace deal.
The main reason for contacting you is to propose a business cooperation that will be of mutual benefit to both of us and requiring absolute trust and total confidentiality. To get down to brass tacks, we need you to accommodate a large volume of funds for investment into your industrial sector or any other viable sector in your country. We need a foreigner without any prior link to our country for this task for security reasons. Of course, you will be handsomely rewarded for your efforts as well.
If you are interested in this proposition, kindly respond back to me so I can give you further details and what is required for our trust. We will also negotiate an appropriate compensation for your efforts.
Yours faithfully,
Elliot Matare
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Anti-fraud resources:
