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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: Shaw Webmail <weiswestern@shaw.ca>
Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2015 09:47:58 -0700 (MST)
Subject: SECURITY ALERT
Dear User,
Our Technical services has noticed suspicious activities on your user ID and put a temporary block on some functionality on your mailbox.
Kindly Click Here to protect and fully reactivate your user ID to avoid De-activation within the next 24 hrs of notice.
Sincerely,
© 2015 Shaw Communications. All Rights Reserved.
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Anti-fraud resources:
