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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 message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "HSBC Bank plc." (may be fake)
Date: Sun, 5 Dec 2010 12:05:56 -0500
Subject: Your account was accesed by a third party
Dear Customer,
We detected irregular activity on your HSBC
Internet banking account on 06/12/2010.
For your protection, you must verify this
activity before you can continue using your
account.
Please download the document attached to this
email to review your account activity.
We will review the activity on your account
with you and upon verification,
and we will remove any restrictions placed on
your account.
If you choose to ignore our request, you leave us no choise
but to temporaly suspend your account.
We ask that you allow at least 72 hours for the case to be
investigated and we strongly recommend to verefy (sic) your
account in that time.
Best Regards,
Colette Nugent
Head of Customer Communications
© Copyright HSBC Holdings plc 2010 - All rights reserved
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Anti-fraud resources:
