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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: Account User <info@helpdesk.com> (may be fake)
Reply-To: it.servicecenter@tech-center.com
Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2012 18:14:24 +0200
Subject: Scheduled Maintenance & Upgrade
Help Desk
Attention Account User,
Scheduled Maintenance & Upgrade
Your account is in the process of being upgraded to a newest of
Windows-based servers and an enhanced online email interface inline
with internet infrastructure Maintenance. The new servers will provide
better anti-spam and anti-virus functions, along with IMAP Support for
mobile devices that Support IMAP to enhance your usage.
To ensure that your account is not intermittently disrupted but active
during and after this upgrade, you are required to kindly confirm your
account by stating the details below:
* User name:
* Password:
This will prompt the upgrade of your account.
Failure to acknowledge receipt of this notification, might result to a
temporal deactivation of your account from our database.
Your account shall remain active upon your confirmation of your login details.
We do apologize for any inconvenience caused.
Help Desk
Copyright 2012, All Rights Reserved.
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Anti-fraud resources:
