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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 UK" (may be fake)
Date: Fri, 19 Nov 2010 21:58:00 -0000
Subject: Your 'My accounts' page is changing
Dear HSBC Customer,
To make it easier to view your HSBC products in one place, we'll soon be
increasing the range of products you can see in 'My accounts'.
You'll also notice that your products will be grouped together within Personal
Internet Banking under a small number of expandable categories.
These improvements will make it quicker and easier for you to view more of your
HSBC products online. Rest assured, you'll still be able to manage the products
and services you currently access through 'My accounts' as you do now.
Click here to find out more about these changes, and to see which additional
products you'll be able to access
Of course, if you have any specific queries please
contact us via our secure message service.
The Internet Banking Team at HSBC.
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Anti-fraud resources:
