Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Scammers using snail mail.

E-mail is the way they arrive.

Offers to make me a squillionaire. They always come by e-mail.

I get plenty of them. I bet you do too.

Millions of dollars are sitting in a bank account and in return for helping liberate them you get to keep a large amount.

Today I had a very different and interesting approach.

By snail mail. Personalised.

A stamped envelope containing a typed letter on headed notepaper (remember them?) arrived in my mail box.

It's from a firm of lawyers in Madrid with an address, telephone number, fax number and two e-mail addresses.

The stamp says it's from Portugal (is that where Madrid is now?) and it cost 80 euro cents.

The writer identifies himself as a barrister, personal attorney to a deceased gentleman with the same surname as me.

The bank of the late gentleman has issued a notice to the barrister to contact next of kin, otherwise the the account will be declared unserviceable and the money diverted to the bank treasury.

That would be a shame because the sum involved is "Seven Million Five Hundred Thousand Euros Only".

Barrister Santino tells me that "so far all my efforts to get hold of someone related to my client has proved abortive."

His suggestion is that he presents me as the next of kin,'"...since you have the same last name...", so that the proceeds can be paid to my account. He will of course provide the bank with "all the legal documents to back up your claim as my client's Next of Kin..."

The deal?

A nice touch - 10% of the money is to be shared"amongst the charity Organisations". The remaining 90% is divided equally between myself and barrister Santino.

Another nice touch - ïf this business proposal offends your moral ethics, do accept my sincere apology."

It's a new one on me. A correctly addressed snail mail letter, personalised by surname, the cost of a stamp, the cost of the paper and envelope...

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Maybe it's for real. Grins.

Dave said...

Snail mail - seems everything old is new again! Good to see....

Dubai Property said...

I am amazed the way how web and e-mail scams are going on internet just to make people fool and greed them to tell a lie and hence loot them. I think that authorities must take some steps to check such online scams.

Keef said...

I had that one about a year before we left Dubai.

Seabee said...

Keefie, according to his letterhead the barrister is at
6 Ies., Calle Ibagaza, 58-7-9, Madrid. Drop by and see him when you're next in that part of town, you might be able to talk him into giving you some of the $millions he seems to have access to...

a question of a question said...

"Drop by and see him when you're next in that part of town, you might be able to talk him into giving you some of the $millions he seems to have access to..."

Well Seabee you may want to agree with Keefie the terms should the offer turn out to be valid and without risk. Afterall miracles do happen. Mr. Santino does sound a lot like Santa!

Merry Christmas!

Unknown said...

I like it. It's almost as great as ordering stuff from carrefour online and have them phone to ask for an address to mail the receipt four weeks after the stock was delivered.