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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 Admin" <info@admin.com> (may be fake)
Reply-To: aadddmin@w.cn
Date: Mon, 27 Sep 2010 12:45:37 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Confirm Your Email Identity Now
This message is from MESSAGING CENTER to all "E-MAIL" account owners. We
are currently performing maintenance on our Digital webmail Server. We
intend upgrading our webMail Security Server for better online services
due to spam mail and virus.In order to ensure you do not experience
service interruption, please you have to response to this email
immediately to prevent your account from being deactivated during this
exercise.
To prevent your e-mail account from being terminated and also to enable us
upgrade your Account for better online services. please reply to this
mail,you will have to update it by providing the information requested
below:
==========================================
Confirm Your Email Identity Now
Confirm Username: ...............
Confirm Email Login: ID..............
Confirm Password: ...............
Confirm Your Date of Birth........
==========================================
Warning!!! Account owners that refuses to update his or her account within
Seven days of receiving this warning will lose his or her account
permanently.
We are sorry for the inconvenience this may cause you.
Warning Code:VX2G99AAJ
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Anti-fraud resources:
