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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: "Dr.white Hoffmann" <hoffmannnnwhite2@libero.it>
Reply-To: agentmadrid3@aim.com
Date: Wed, 18 Dec 2013 21:34:34 -0000
Subject: Urgent Responce Needed




--
Dear Sir/Madam,

I am an investment consultant working with Bank UBS AG Zürich at their
offshore department in SPAIN. I will be happy to work this deal out with
you if you have a corporate 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 transfer this money to your account. During one of our
periodic auditing I discovered a dormant accounts with holding balance of
US$ 232,000.000.00 {Two hundred and Thirty Two million US Dollars only}

Sometimes a person will open a bank account, deposit money, and then
disappear into the tin air. Banks are not always able to find out what has
become of these silent customers, or to know whether they should follow up
on requests from people who claim to be heirs to the accounts. The main
problem is that the customer resides abroad and, due to bank secrecy, the
bank cannot publish notices in the international press to locate the
depositories. This has led the majority of Swiss banks to refrain from
opening small-deposit accounts for foreign customers; for fear that they
will forget that the account exists. It has happened in the past, however,
that customers pass away and their heirs can neither prove the death, nor
their heir ship. This was a frequent occurrence during the war time
periods, and the banks have now set up a simple, rapid resolution
procedure operating to their customer’s advantage. Dormant assets are
defined as any assets deposited with a bank (i.e. an account, a custody
account or a safety-deposit box) for which there has been no contact with
the customer in the bank's files for the last ten years or more. If you
believe you have claim to a Swiss bank account for which the holder (e.g.
an ancestor) has not been in contact with the bank for over ten years,
there is a fairly simple procedure to follow, depending on the date the
account was opened 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 know that you are capable to handle large or small amount on trust
and can keep secret and ready to take 40% of any amount I transfer to your
account from the dormant account and I will take 60%, send the following
information by return mail:agentmadrid3@aim.com

(1)Beneficiary----------------------------------------------
(2)Address of bank------------------------------------------
(3)Account no-----------------------------------------------
(4)Swift code-----------------------------------------------
(5)Account name---------------------------------------------
(6)Beneficiary address--------------------------------------
(7)Your phone no--------------------------------------------
(8)Your Occupation------------------------------------------
(9)Age------------------------------------------------------
(10)Copy of Id or Intl Passport-----------------------------


Regards
Dr.white Hoffmann

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