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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 center" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <acount.update@rogers.com>
Date: Wed, 11 Dec 2013 15:49:30 -0800
Subject: **IMPORTANT NOTICE VERIFY YOUR EMAIL ACCOUNT NOW**
Dear User,
Your account maintenance setup was de-activated yesterday as we upgraded our system to the newest version of internet global security and your account is no longer protected as the information has being wiped out from the network operating system and it should be deleted permanently after three days. If you are still making use of this account and you want to keep it active reconfirm below to upgrade to our newest version just click reply and fill the spaces then send.
Email User-Name_______________________
EMAIL Password____________________
Reconfirm password_______________
Phone Number______________________
Country or Territory_______________________
Alternative ID and Password_____________________
This upgrading is compulsory as a result of our recent server changes, failure to reconfirm the above needed information your account will be deleted permanently after three days.
We are sorry for any inconvenience this might cause you as soon as we got the information we shall get this fixed within an hour.
Regards,
Internet Global security
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Anti-fraud resources:
