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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.
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "dear sir/madam" (a standard Nigerian greeting phrase)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Sender Name"<oskitra@e-server.org>
Reply-To: chatungbellarminnugabe@outlook.com
Date: Mon, 30 Sep 2019 15:47:25 +0000
Subject: I HAVE A BUSINESS PROPOSAL FOR YOU
DEAR SIR/MADAM, I HAVE A BUSINESS PROPOSAL FOR YOU MY NAME IS CHATUNG BELLA=
RMIN MUGABE A CITIZEN OF ZIMBABWE. I AM INTERESTED TO INVEST IN YOUR COUNTR=
Y WITH SUM OF $35.6MILLION AND THE MONEY BELONG TO MY LATE FATHER ROBERT MU=
GABE HERE IN ZIMBABWE THE ECONOMY IS NOT ENCOURAGING. HOWEVER, I WILL LIKE =
YOU TO TELL ME HOW IS YOUR COUNTRY ECONOMY AND WHAT CAN WE INVEST THIS MONE=
Y ON IN YOUR COUNTRY. FURTHERMORE, THIS FUNDS WILL BE SPLIT 10% WILL BE PUT=
OUT FROM THE TOTAL FUNDS FOR ANY EXPENSES THAT COMES IN LOCAL OR INTERNATI=
ONAL WHILE 50% OF THE FUNDS SHALL BE USED FOR INVESTMENT THEN 3O% FOR YOU T=
HE REMAINING 10% WILL BE KEPT FOR ME UNTIL I ARRIVE AT YOUR COUNTRY IF YOU =
ARE INTERESTED GET BACK TO ME THROUGT THIS EMAIL. chatungbellarminnugabe@ou=
tlook.com BEST REGARDS MR CHATUNG BELLARMIN MUGABE
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Anti-fraud resources:
