419 scam: james bates <jamesbate@att.net> Investment request

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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.
The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "top secret" (scammers urge victims to keep the transaction secret because they don't want anyone to point out to them that it is a scam)
- "dormant account" (Banks mentioned in 419 scams are always fake (real banks don't communicate using mobile phones or free webmail addresses))
This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.

Fraud email example:

From: james bates <jamesbate@att.net>
Reply-To: mr_batts2009@yahoo.com.hk
Date: Tue, 15 Mar 2011 09:27:10 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Investment request

UBS AG
The Bank for Banks
100 Liverpool Street
EC2M 2RH London
United Kingdom

Hello Dear,

I am an investment consultant working with UBS AG London, in charge of the bank's client relations/offshore department. I will be happy to work out a financial deal with you, if you
have a corporate or personal Bank Account and if you can keep TOP SECRET.I need strong assurance that you will never let me down, once we agree to work together in trust and based on mutual interest.

During one of our periodic auditing/claims resolution tribunal(CRT) execise in 2001, I
discovered a dormant account with a holding balance of £25,000.000.00 {Twenty Five Million GB Pounds only}. This account has not been in operation over the years. Further careful investigtion over a period of 9yrs now, has indicated non-existence of a bona fide
beneficiary, hence my decision to contact you and move this fund to an account which you
shall provide. At this moment, I am constrained to issue more details about this proposition until your positive response is received. Please note that what I'm proposing is based on offer and acceptance criteria, and you should feel free to decline if you feel unethical about it.

Please take a moment of your very busy schedule to read about CRT on dormant accounts: website;http://www.crt-ii.org/2001_list/publication_list1_A.phtm

I look forward to hearing from you as soon as possible if you are interested. Thank you for
your time and attention.

Sincerely,

Mr. James Bates

Anti-fraud resources:

What can you do when you receive 419 spam