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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: WINDOW LIVE HOTMAIL <smokbbq@yahoo.com>
Reply-To: james8805@aol.com
Date: Tue, 30 Aug 2011 11:15:49 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: WINDOW LIVE ACCOUNT INFO WITHIN THE NEXT 48 HOURS!!
Â
Windows Live
Account Alert !!!
Â
Â
This email
from Windows Live Customer Service® and we are sending it to all account user
for safety. Due to the anonymous registration of our account which is causing
congestion to our service, so we are shutting down some account and your account
was among those to be deleted.
The purpose of this email is for you to verify
that you are the owner of this account and you are still using it by filling the
information below after clicking on the reply button:
Â
* Full Name.......................... ........
* User
Name:......................... ........
*
Password:..................... .............
* Date
of Birth:........................ ......
*
Occupation:................... ............
* Country Or Territory:..................
Â
After following
the instructions in the sheet, your account will not be interrupted and will
continue as normal. Thanks for your attention to this request. We apologize for
any inconveniences.
Warning!!! Account owner that refuses to update his/her
account after 24 Hours of receiving this warning will lose his or her account
permanently.
Sincerely,
The Windows
Live Team™
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Anti-fraud resources:
