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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.
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: (sent from abused email account)
Reply-To: <mrspatrichandler@outlook.com>
Date: Fri, 10 Jul 2015 09:03:13 -0700
Subject: Re: From Mr. Liang Liu
Attn:
I am sorry to intrude in your privacy as this letter may come as a surprise to you as you do not know me and we have never met. My name is Mr. Liang Liu, a Hong Kong National and I am presently working in the Private Banking department of Nanyang Commercial Bank in Hong Kong. Due to the sensitive nature of this transaction and for purposes of confidentiality/my security, I will not be revealing my complete identity to you for now until I get your confirmed cooperation on this proposal. I am mailing this letter to you from South Africa, presently here on a 13 days business seminar.
By the time you receive this letter I am sure back in Hong Kong. I have decided to contact you regarding a matter that is of utmost importance/urgent attention. I will tell you how I got your contact details in my next correspondence; I have chosen to contact you for the reasons which I am going to explain to you in my next email as soon as i hear from you.
I await your reply as soon as you get this letter irrespective of your decision.
Regards,
Liang Liu
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Anti-fraud resources:
