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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:
- "cheng.hu@outlook.com" (this email address has been used in a known scam)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: info@www.net
Reply-To: cheng.hu@outlook.com
Date: Sat, 04 Jan 2014 11:54:05 +0000
Subject: Read Carefully
Good day,
Pardon me for not having the pleasure of knowing your mindset before making you This offer and it is utterly confidential and genuine by virtue of its nature. I cannot imagine the surprise this will bring to you, but please be rest assured Is with good faith and intentions from a friend in dare need of your assistance. I am a staff of Private Banking Services at the Bank of China (BOC). I am Contacting you concerning our customer and, an investment placed under our Banks management 5 years ago. I would respectfully request that you keep the contents of this mail confidential and respect the integrity of the information you come by as a result of this mail. I contacted you independently of our investigation and no one is informed of this communication. I would like to intimate you with certain facts that I believe would be of interest to you. You are to
direct your response to my main e-mail cheng.hu@outlook.com
I await your response.
Sincerely,
Cheng Hu
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Anti-fraud resources:
