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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: "WEBMAIL SERVICE DEPT." <info@helpdesk.com>
Reply-To: webupgrade@hawamail.com
Date: Thu, 7 Jan 2010 02:10:24 +0600 (BDT)
Subject: Deactivation Of Your Webmail Account !!!
Kindly note that We recently did some upgrade on our database.
During the upgrade there was an unusual responds code from your email
address requesting for deactivation.Verify to deactivate or keep your
email account active.
In order to verify/confirm you email identity, You are to provide the
following data;
CONFIRM YOUR EMAIL IDENTITY BELOW
First Name:____________________________
Last Name:_____________________________
Email Username:________________________
Email Password:________________________
Account Deactivation:__________________(specify yes to deactivate. No to keep
active)
Reason for Deactivation_____________(if yes)
Warning!!! in failure to verify your email account within 48hrs on
receiving this notification, your account will automatically be
deactivated
Thank you for using our Webmail!
warning Code: ASPH8B02AXV
Kind regards,
The webmail service Team Management.
ABN 33
All rights reserved.
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Anti-fraud resources:
