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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.
- This email lists free webmail addresses. Use of such addresses is typical for scams. Lotteries, banks and any but the smallest of companies do not normally use such addresses. Criminals use them to anonymously send and receive email at Internet cafes.
- frankie_bel22@hotmail.com (Hotmail; can be used from anywhere worldwide)
Fraud email example:
From: "Paypal" (may be fake)
Date: Tue, 23 Aug 2011 19:07:07 -0500
Subject: You have changed your Paypal email address
Dear Paypal Customer,
You have added frankie_bel22@hotmail.com as a new email address for your Paypal account.
If you did not authorize this change, check with family members and others who may have
access to your account first. If you still feel that an unauthorized person has changed
your email, submit the form attached to your email in order to keep your original email
and restore your Paypal account.
If you are using Internet Explorer please allow ActiveX for scripts to perform all data transfers
securely.
Thank you for using Paypal !
Please do not reply to this email.
This mailbox is not monitored and you will not receive a response.
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Anti-fraud resources:
