Inheritance Scams: Your Suitcase Full of Money is on the Way

Inheritance scams can be very exciting. It's like being in a movie only better. You are about to become a millionaire without even winning the lottery! You just happen to be the right person in the right place at the right time and you are about to reap the benefits. It is so compelling that I had a hard time convincing a friend no to jump on a plane to fly to England to complete the transaction in one scam. It was a sure thing and the money was about to start rolling in, or so she thought.

The variations on the theme are very exciting and entertaining. The prince, the treasurer or the dethroned King has access to a sum of money in the millions left by a stranger, a family member, the King, who died in a car crash, parents killed in a safari or was killed in a coup. The money is not missed and is not being used but cannot be gotten out of the country. With your connections, help and personal banking information, the money can be snuck out of the country and into your bank account. You will receive a small but healthy percentage of the funds which are all cash for your services!

I have been receiving emails such as these for several years. Here are some recent email examples. Please note, for all emailed scams, the spelling and errors are left as they were written by the email authors and have not been corrected. Excess line breaks were however removed.

BILL AND EXCHANGE MANAGER,

FOREIGN REMITTANCE DEPARTMENT(BOA).

BANK OF AFRICA,

OUAGADOUGOU,BURKINA FASO.

www.bkofafrica.net

Dear Friend,

How are you doing with your family? Hope fine, Please pay attention and understand my reason of contacting you today through this email, My name is Dr Idris Rimi, Bill and Exchange Manager in Bank Of Africa Ouagadougou Burkina-Faso. In my department, during the Auditing of the year 2006, I discovered an abounded sum of €4.500.000.00 Pounds that belongs to our Late Mr. Morris Thompson, an American prominent man who unfortunately lost his life in the plane crash of Alaska Airlines Flight 261, which crashed on January 31st 2000. You may read more about the crash on visiting this C.N.N News internet website below.

http://archives.cnn.com/2000/US/02/01/alaska.airlines.list/

I desperately need your assistance to secure and move this huge sums of money left behind by my late client to the tune of €4.500.000.00, (Four million five hundred thousand pounds) out from Bank Of Africa Ouagadougou Burkina Faso to your own account, he executed contract through Department of Work and Housing here in Ouagadougou Burkina-Faso and the mentioned money above is his money left in our bank before his death. Meanwhile, for your smoothness of this transaction, I will pay you 30% of the total sum for your co-operation in this matter. If you know that you are interested and capable to handle this business transaction, come up with the information's showed below:-

1. Your Full Name:

2. Your Contact Cell Phone Number:

3. Your Age:

4. Your Sex:

5. Your Occupations:

6. Your Country and City:

As soon as possible all these information's is submitted to me, I will

immediately draft an application form with all your information's and send

back to you, so that you will proceed with the transaction by sending the

form to BOA bank for the transferring of this fund into your account.

Yours Faithfully,

DR IDRIS RIMI.

Here is another email that I received. These emails are likely mass emailed to many recipients:

Dear Friend,

I crave your indulgence as I contact you in such a surprising manner and I want you to bear in mind that this is not a hoax mail But I respectfully insist you read this mail carefully as I am optimistic it will open door for unimaginable financial reward for both of us.I got your contact through Burkinafaso information network online services,

I am the manager of bill and exchange at the foreign remittance department BANK OF AFRICAN (BOA).I am writing to seek your interest over a transaction. In my department we discovered an abandoned sum of $15m US dollars (FIFTEEN MILLION US DOLLARS) in an account that belongs to one of our foreign customer,known as Dr George Brumley Jr, 68, and his wife, Jean, 67.Who died along with his entire family in Monday, July 21, 2003,in plane crash with Atlanta airline.visit the website:-http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/africa/07/21/kenya.crash/index.html

Since we got information about his death, we have been expecting his next of kin to come over and claim his money because we cannot release it unless somebody applies for it as next of kin or relation to the deceased as indicated in our banking guidelines but unfortunately we learnt that all his supposed next of kin or relation died alongside with him at the plane crash leaving nobody behind for the claim.

It is therefore upon this discovery that I decided to make this business proposal to you and release the money to you as the next of kin or relation to the deceased for safety and subsequent disbursement since nobody is coming for it and we dont want this money to go into the Bank treasury as unclaimed Fund.

The Banking law and guideline here stipulates that if such money remained unclaimed after six years, the money will be transferred into the Bank treasury as unclaimed fund. The request of foreigner as next of kin in this business is occasioned by the fact that the customer was a foreigner and a Burkinabe cannot stand as next of kin to a foreigner. I agree that 35% of this money will be for you as foreign partner, in respect to the provision of a foreign account, 5% will be set aside for expenses incurred during the

business and 60% would be for me and my family.

There after I will visit your country for disbursement according to the percentages indicated. Therefore to enable the immediate transfer of this fund to you as arranged, you must apply first to the bank as relations or next of kin of the deceased indicating your bank name, your bank account number, your private telephone and fax number for easy and effective communication and location where in the money will be remitted .

Upon receipt of your reply, I will send to you by fax or email the text of the application. I will not fail to bring to your notice that this transaction is hitch free and that you should not entertain any atom of fear as all required arrangements have been made for the transfer,You should contact me immediately as soon as you receive this letter and also call me on phone for more directives.Contact Tele-Phone:00226 78 01 6778 Hopeing to hear from you immediately.

Your's faithfully,

DR.ALIU MOHAMED.

Here is another:

Dear Beloved,

Due to the sudden death of my husband GeneralAbacha the former head of state of Nigeria in June 1998, I have been thrown into a state of hopelessness by the present administration.I have lost confidence with anybody within my country. I got your contacts through personal research, and had to reach you through this medium. I will give you more details when you reply.

Due to security network placed on my daily affairs I cant visit the embassy so that is why I have contacted you. My husband deposited $12.6million dollars with a security firm abroad whose name is witheld for now till we communicate. I will be happy if you can receive this funds and keep it safe I assure you 20% of this fund. I will need your telephone/mobile numbers so that we can commence communication.

Yours Truely,

Hajia Mariam.

The scenarios and reasoning for the transfer of money to you are endless. There is always some good reason and your own desire or need for money will be your own undoing. Getting something for nothing is a great prospect. Some call it greed. Whatever the reason for participating it is very easy for a person to get pulled into the scam and to get hooked. That person will also find it very easy to spend money in the process which is bound to happen along the way.

You may be required to put up money in good faith to show that you are honest. This is a variation of an older scam. Two people pretending not to know one another and you are all witnesses to a wallet full of money being dropped and lost by a stranger. Each person puts up money to show that they are trustworthy. In the end your money is gone and you are left holding an envelope full of cut up paper with a bill on each side if you are lucky.

I recently decided to walk a few blocks on the way home and one block from my local police station and first one stranger came over to show me a found wallet. The wallet had an address label on it. A second stranger came over too. They tried to strike up a conversation asking me what to do. I had heard of this scam, it was similar and familiar to one I had heard as a child, and could not believe that it was actually happening. I told them to take the wallet down the street to the police station on the corner and walked away. This big money scheme has to do with a possible big empty suitcase personally delivered in some cases. I remember recently seeing a news report where someone ended up with an empty suitcase.

When you get one of these emails, enjoy the story then delete the message. Do not reply. A reply will only get the scammer started trying to convince you that it is real. Use your common sense and walk away. You can easily end up bankrupt and involved in an international scam looking for something for nothing.

Have you won a lottery lately that you never even entered? Lottery Scams will be explored in the next article.