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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: "Customer Care" <Alert@live.com>
Reply-To: accountservice101@live.com
Date: Sun, 7 Feb 2010 20:40:32 +0800
Subject: Hotmail Warning (Verify Your Hotmail Account now To Avoid It Closed)
Windows Live Hotmail Alert!!!
CONFIRM YOUR WINDOWS LIVE ACCOUNT SERVICES. VERIFY YOUR HOTMAIL ACCOUNT NOW TO
AVOID IT CLOSED !!!
Dear Account Owner
This is email from Windows Live Hotmail® and we are sending it to you account
user for your safety. Due to the anonymous registration of our account which
is causing congestion to our service, so we are shutting down some account and
your account was among those to be deleted,so the purpose of this email is for
you to verify that you are the owner of this account and you are still using
it by filling the information below after clicking on the reply button:
* User Name: .........................
* Password: ................................
* Date of Birth: ............................
* Country Or Territory: ................
After following the instructions in the sheet, your account will not be
interrupted and will continue as normal. Thanks for your attention to this
request. We apologize for any inconveniences.
Warning!!! Account owner that refuses to update his/her account after 48 hours
of receiving this warning will lose his or her account permanently.
Sincerely,
The Windows Live Hotmail Team
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Anti-fraud resources:
