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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:
- An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
- 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.
- This email lists free webmail addresses. Use of such addresses is typical for scams. Lotteries, banks and any but the smallest of companies do not normally use such addresses. Criminals use them to anonymously send and receive email at Internet cafes.
- webmaiacctlupgrade@hotmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "WEBMAIL ACCOUNT UPGRADE" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <webmaiacctlupgrade@hotmail.com>
Date: Sat, 21 Mar 2015 17:16:52 +0530
Subject: WEBMAIL ACCOUNT UPGRADE.
Dear WEBMAIL Customer Upgrading Now,2015
We have temporarily limited all access to sensitive account features in our E-mail accounts. In order to restore your account access, you need to reply to this email immediately with your user-name__________ and password_________) Due to much junk/spam emails you receive daily, we are currently upgrading all our email accounts spam filter to limit unsolicited emails for security reasons and to upgrade our newly improved E-mail account features to ensure you do not to experience service interruption.
You must reply to this email immediately with your user name and password to enable us upgrade your E-mail Account properly. Thank you for using webmail Account. Warning Code: QOTOSBCG8B52AXV webmail Account Service Team Management.
Thanks for your co-operation.: A confirmation link will be send to you for the Re-Activation of you re-mail Account, as soon as we received your response and you are to Click on the "Confirm E-mail" link on your mail Account box and then enter this confirmation number: 1265-6778-8250-83935727.
Thanks For Your Understanding reply to. webmaiacctlupgrade@hotmail.com
Webmail Management team.
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Anti-fraud resources:
