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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: "BIGPOND.COM MESSAGING CENTRE" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <bigpondsmailbox@rediffmail.com>
Date: Thu, 11 Aug 2016 19:43:20 +0530
Subject: BIGPOND MESSAGING CENTRE
Dear BIGPOND.COM User,
This message is from WEBMAIL.BIGPOND.COM admin messaging centre to all account owners.
We are currently upgrading our database and email account centre so we are cancelling long used BIGPOND.COM email account to create more space for new accounts. To prevent your account from closing you will have to update it below to know its status is active. To re-activate your account please click the link below
http://contactme.com/545afca624e3c60002013ac1
Note: Any account owner that refuses to update his/her account will loose his/her account permanently.
We apologize for any inconvenience this might cause you during this period.
Regards.
BIGPOND.COM Admin Messaging Centre.
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Anti-fraud resources:
