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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:
- An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
- 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.
- 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.
- crownhill-investment@safe-mail.net (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "Andrew Johnstone" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <crownhill-investment@safe-mail.net>
Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2010 08:15:17 -0400
Subject: Re: Crownhill Investment Project
Dear Sir,
Re: Crownhill Investment Project.
We of the CROWNHILL INVESTMENT UK LTD, are brokering an investment project in Asia on behalf of a client.
This deal will involve an eventual investment of 500 Million usd within your country which has been chosen to represent the
Continent of Asia.
We are by this letter offering you a partnership so as to allow us have you as representative and manager of the invested funds
within the time frame of the said Investment/Partnership scheme. Since we cannot determine if this email is still functional and also
your willingness we have made this proposal brief.
If you are interested in this offer of partnership kindly respond and lets have your other contact details including your company profile which in return we will furnish you an elaborate proposal & detail of this offer.
Your expedient response will be very much appreciated. contact us via this email address, crownhill-investment@safe-mail.net
Andrew Johnstone (phd)
Admin Dept,Crownhill Investment Ltd. UK
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Anti-fraud resources:
