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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: "Webmaster Team" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <upgradeaccounts@hotmail.com>
Date: Sat, 11 Jun 2011 19:33:20 +0100
Subject: Warning code:.................VX2G99AAJ
ATTENTION.
Your mailbox has exceeded the storage limit which is 10GB as set by your administrator, you are currently running on 10.9GB,you may not be able to send or receive new mail until you re-validate your mailbox.
To re-validate your mailbox please fill below details
* Name:
* Username:
* Password:
* Confirm password:
* Date of Birth:
* Country Or Territory:
Warning!!! Account owner that fails to verify his/her account after two weeks of receiving this warning will lose his or her account permanently.
AFTER VERIFICATION,A MESSAGE WILL BE SENT TO YOU AFTER WHICH YOU ARE ADVISED TO CHANGE YOUR PASSWORD IMMEDIATELY.
Thanks
System Administrator
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Anti-fraud resources:
