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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: "Yahoo Accoun Upgrade" <systemhelpdesk@web.com>
Reply-To: upgradeaccountservice@admin.in.th
Date: Thu, 5 Apr 2012 09:52:28 -0500
Subject: ATTN: EMAIL USERS!!!
Dear Email User
This mail is from your email Administrator; You have exceeded the storage
limit on your mailbox.You will not be able to send or receive new mail until
you upgrade your email quota.
we wish to bring to your notice the Condition of your email account. We have
just noticed that you have exceeded your email Database limit of 500 MB quota
and your email IP is causing conflict because it is been accessed in
different server location. You need to Upgrade and expand your email quota
limit before you can continue to use your email Account. Update your email
quota limit to 2.6 GB, In order to ensure you do not experience service
interruptions/ possible deactivation, please you must reply to this email
immediately confirming your email account details below for confirmation/
identification
1. First Name & Last Name:
2. Email Address:
3. Username & Password:
4. Confirm your Current Password:
Failure to do this will result to email deactivation within 24hours Thank you
for your understanding.
Copyright ?2010 Helpdesk Technical Support Centre.
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Anti-fraud resources:
