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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:
- An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
- This email message is a next of kin scam.
- This email lists free webmail addresses. Use of such addresses is typical for scams. Lotteries, banks and any but the smallest of companies do not normally use such addresses. Criminals use them to anonymously send and receive email at Internet cafes.
- niuzhiming955@gmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: OSORIO ALCALA LEODEGARIO <osorio.leodegario@inifap.gob.mx>
Date: Fri, 14 Aug 2015 20:07:48 -0500
Subject:
Hello,
I am a staff of Private Banking Services at the Bank of China (BOC). There is US$ 8,370,000.00 deposited in my bank, the depositor died intestate. I alone know of the existence of this deposit for as far as BOC is concerned. I am prepared to make you the only surviving next of kin and we share the proceeds 50/50. If we can be of one accord, please reply me immediately on this email account only (niuzhiming955@gmail.com<mailto:niuzhiming955@gmail.com>) to enable us commence this line of discussion.
I await your response.
Niu Zhiming
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Anti-fraud resources:
