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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: "Bank of China (Hong Kong)" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <beta.projects@qq.com>
Date: Mon, 25 Nov 2013 13:20:13 +0100
Subject: please read this
Dear Sir/Madam,
My name is Du Juan the wife of Huang Guangyu.
I need to relocate $23Million immediately out of China and I will need your help to do. I need somebody who can receive the money in cash in their country because I will only be able to get it out of China through a cash relocation system perfected here.
Please understand why I wrote to you as a perfect stranger and through public email. It is the only way my plans can work right now. Help if you can. I am ready to use $10Million for charity and humanitarian purposes which you will handle and also give you $1Million for your kind assistance. You will save the rest for me pending when I get out of China to meet with you. Please read about my profile here:
http://www.rightcelebrity.com/?p=4877
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8688638.stm
http://www.economist.com/node/15549276
I urgently expect your good reply to aid me.
Thank you very much in advance.
Du Juan (MRS)
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Anti-fraud resources:
