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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.

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Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

Fraud email example:

From: "Thomas Winkler" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <twinkler01@voila.fr>
Date: Thu, 23 Jul 2009 05:45:30 +0100
Subject: Urgent from Thomas Winkler

UBS AG Postfach
8098 Zurich
Switzerland
www.ubs.com

Hello,

I am an investment consultant working with Bank Of Swtizerland, UBS AG. at their offshore department Zurich Switzerland.I will be happy to work this deal out with you if you have a coporate or personal Bank Account and if you are capable to keep TOP SECRET.I need strong Assurance that you will never let me down,if I transter this money to your account.

During one of our periodic auditing I discorved a dormant accounts with holding balance of 10,000.000.00 {Ten million Euros} this account has not been operated for the past years. As at this moment,I am constrained to issue more details about this business until your response is received.

If you are not familiar with my Bank profile,please take a moment of your very busy schedules to read about my Bank website;www.ubs.com and I look forward to hearing from you as soon as possible.
Thank you for your time and attention.
Warmest regards,

Mr. Thomas Winkler
Chief investment Consultant.

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