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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 message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Yahoo!" (may be fake)
Date: Sat, 5 Feb 2011 04:43:28 -0800
Subject: Update your Yahoo! account now
Due to
the congestion in all Yahoo! users accounts, Yahoo! would be shutting down
all unused accounts. In order to avoid the deactivation of your account,
Kindly update and verify your Yahoo! account information by clicking the link below:
Please update and verify
your Yahoo !information by clicking the link below:
Click here to update and verify your Yahoo!
information
After you must have
followed the instructions in the next page your Yahoo! account will not be
interrupted and will continue as normal. Thank you for your usual
co-operation. We apologize for any inconvenience.
If your account
information is not updated within 48 hours then your ability to access
your Yahoo! account will become restricted.
Yahoo! Customer Care
Case number: 8941624
Contact date:
02-05-2011.
Copyright © 2011 Yahoo! Inc. All rights
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Anti-fraud resources:
