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It sounds real to me. That story is too unique and clever by half for a con artist to dream up.
My bet is that it is a phishing scam.... too good to be true....
Here was an email my father received today:
"Dear Sir/Madam, (this chump doesn't even know my father's real name: Clue No. 1)
I am Ola Richard, personal attorney to Mr Gilberto XXXXXXX (a name of someone my dad doesn't even know: Clue No. 2), an expatriate who was resident here in Lagos. On the 2nd of January, 2005 I recieved a call that my client died in the Tsunami Disaster with his wife and child while on vacation at Phuket Island in Thailand. Since then I have made several enquiries to locate any of my client's extended relatives but it has proved unsuccessful. I have contacted you to assist in repatriating the funds left behind by my client before it gets confiscated or declared unserviceable by the bank where this deposit is lodged. Particularly, the bank where the deceased had an account valued at US$1,700,000.00 (One Million, Seven Hundred Thousand United States Dollars).
The bank has issued me a notice to provide the next-of-kin or have the account confiscated. Since I have been unsuccessful in locating the biological relatives of my late client, I hereby seek your consent to present you to the bank as his next-of-kin since you are a foreigner and bear the same lastname, so that the balance on his account can be transfered to you as inheritance and thereafter, you and me can share the money; 50% to me, 40% to you, and 10% will be donated to the Tsunami Disaster Charity Fund. (Oh how generousand just)
As a lawyer I will obtain from the relevant authority, necessary legal paperwork that will be used to substantiate and legalise our claim to the inheritance. All I require is your consent, honest (honest? honest? HA!
Thank you.
Barr. Ola Richard"
I should forward it to yahoo's fraud investigation department....
Last edited by Phenomanul; 09-12-2006 at 12:07 AM.
It sounds real to me. That story is too unique and clever by half for a con artist to dream up.
SCAM!!! I get at least one of these per day. Total bull .
I looked up the attorney name, and given the yahoo account had a ".fr" at the end I even looked him up in french directories....
No hits...
I'll probably forward this crap to the fraud dept tomorrow.
This is known as Nigerian Bank Fraud, or 419 Advance Fee Fraud (the official name for this type of scam). I used to run into this stuff all the time in my former career with the US Treasury.
www.fbi.gov/majcases/fraud/fraudschemes.htm
So I guess I should forward it directly to the FBI?
I hope the lazy criminals get caught.
I get these all the time, anybody that is stupid enough to fall for this is asking for it.
Somewhere or another I read a story about a guy who got tired of these e-mails, so basically played along and scammed the scammer by giving them the run around. It's pretty funny, I wish I remember where I read it.
You'll find everything you need to know about these here:
http://www.419eater.com/
Most definitely a scam, Phenomanul.
Make sure you give Ola Richard all the proper information...then he can steal whatever he wants from you.
Seriously ...
BINGO.
You got to it before I did.
This is the kind of stuff that really deserves a long stint in a federal "pound-'em-in-the-ass" prison, or worse.
I remember reading that one as well.
It was a gal who wanted to sell a laptop, and got some form of fake-ass check.
She sent the f***er a cardboard box that he had to pay $100 to british customs to get.
obviously a phish. but not nearly as bad as the "ebay" phishs.... omg those are horrible. since they are so 'real' looking and they link to a e-bay looking site.
Sounds like a good deal to me. I think you should do it.
How about you forward me that message so I can get in on that sweet action. We'll be rich !
True. The latest ebay one is very good (I got it yesterday). They also have a Bank of America one that is circulating that is excellent; it's about verification of your online account transactions. There's also a new Paypal one that says it's about some fraud on your Paypal account.
Freakin' scammers.
Yeah the Bank Of America one is pretty well made.
Just a little problem in their logic. How the am I supposed to have a BOA account
Yeah the Bank Of America one is pretty well made.
Just a little problem in their logic. How the am I supposed to have a BOA account
But you are right, it's very good. We have a Bank of America account, so it was scary good, but I know that they never ask for that kind of info through email.
Just make sure you remove that copy of Pirates of the caribbean from your Hard Drive first.
yeah. that last paypal one almost thru me for a loop - and I expect everything in my inbox to be phish.
I have not gotton the BOA one yet. But I do reguarly get phishes for other financial ins utions to which i do not have accounts. Citi, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo etc.
Have you seen the one scam where the Mexican student ask for money from a poster at a website?
The Paypal one was actually automatically flagged and sorted into the Spam folder by gmail.
I actually retrieved it out of there and had to read it over before agreeing that gmail made the right call.
Some of these scams that you all mentioned in this thread is scary. I have never gotten such a weird scam from a fake lawyer like Phenomanul posted. It's a shame how easy it is for scamers to find out our addresses and names.
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