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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 Account Update" <helpdesk2010@mailwebmaster.com> (may be fake)
Reply-To: helpdesk2010@mail2webmaster.com
Date: Fri, 11 Jun 2010 15:40:18 -0500 (CDT)
Subject:
Dear Webmail user,
This message is from the Webmail IT Service messaging center to all
subscribers/webmail users. We are currently upgrading our data base and
e-mail center due to an unusual activities identified in our email system.
We are deleting all unused Webmail Accounts. You are required to verify
your webmail account by confirming your Webmail identity.
This will prevent your Webmail account from been closed during this exercise.
In order to confirm you Web-Mail identity, you are to provide the
following data;
First Name:
Last Name:
Username/ID:
Password:
Retype Password:
Email Address:
*Important*
Please provide all these information completely and correctly otherwise
due to security reasons we may have to close your account temporarily.
We thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. Please understand
that this is a security measure intended to help protect you and your
Webmail Account. We apologize for any inconvenience.
Regards,
Webmail IT Service
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Anti-fraud resources:
