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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: "System Administrator" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <helpdesk-team@live.com>
Date: Wed, 28 Jul 2010 23:15:08 +0100
Subject: Email Quota Limit Exceeded!!!
Your mailbox quota has been exceeded the storage limit which is 20GB, You cannot send or receive mail when your mailbox reaches 20.9GB. You are currently running on 20.8GB You may not be able to send or receive new mail until you reduce your mailbox size.
To make more space available, Do click the link below;
http://www.opinionpower.com/Surveys/886059217.html
(If the link above does not appear clickable or does not open a browser window when you click it, copy it and paste it into your web browser's Location bar.)
Failure to do so may result in the cancellation of your account. You must click the link above or the space will not be freed.
Click the link above for Help and more information.
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Anti-fraud resources:
