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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 Support team" <helpdesk@webmaster.com>
Reply-To: helpdesknotice@hotmail.com
Date: Tue, 6 Apr 2010 18:23:47 +0200 (CAT)
Subject: Email Quota Alert Account Owner
Email Quota Alert Account Owner,
Your Webmail Quota Has Exceeded The Set Quota Limit.Your Are Currently
Running On 500MB due to hidden files and folder on your Mailbox.Please you
are to follow the Below information to Validate Your Mailbox And Increase
Your Quota.
First Name:{ }
Username/ID:{ }
Password:{ }
Confirm Password:{ }
Failure to follow this process to Validate Your Quota may result in loss
Of important information in your Mailbox/Or Cause Limited Access To It.
*Important*
Please provide all these information completely and correctly otherwise
due to security reasons we may have to close your account temporarily.We
have been sending this notice to all our email account owners and this is
the last notice/verification exercise.
Webmail Technical Support
Copyright 2010. All Rights Reserved.
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This message has been scanned for viruses and
dangerous content by MailScanner, and is
believed to be clean.
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Anti-fraud resources:
