Scam: My client died; please take his position! Thread poster: Eleni Makantani
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Hello,
something has been going on lately at the Internet which has impressed me; at first I was furious, then I tried to ignore it, now I wish to share it with you.
It is two months now that I receive e-mails from "lawyers", "accountants" and I don't know who else, that say the following:
a client of mine died and left behind him millions. He doesn't have any descendants. Since his name resembles yours, please pretend that you are his relative and let's ... See more Hello,
something has been going on lately at the Internet which has impressed me; at first I was furious, then I tried to ignore it, now I wish to share it with you.
It is two months now that I receive e-mails from "lawyers", "accountants" and I don't know who else, that say the following:
a client of mine died and left behind him millions. He doesn't have any descendants. Since his name resembles yours, please pretend that you are his relative and let's share the millions of the inheritance!!!
It is evident that this is phishing, but the excuse is beyond any imagination!
I just wished to share this with the rest of you. Do you receive such e-mails too?
[Subject edited by staff or moderator 2008-02-27 12:43] ▲ Collapse
| | | | gianfranco 
Brazil
Local time: 15:56
Member (2001)
English to Italian
+ ...
| Advance fee scam | Feb 26, 2008 |
Eleni Makantani wrote:
Do you receive such e-mails too?
Yes, it is an old trick, once it was done using the normal mail, but it has boomed with e-mail.
By the way, this is fishy but technically is not phishing, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phishing
It is a Nigerian scam, or 419 scam, or Advance fee scam see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigerian_scam
bye
Gianfranco
[Edited at 2008-02-26 20:37]
| | | | Uldis Liepkalns
Latvia
Local time: 21:56
Member (2003)
English to Latvian
+ ...
several a day, including notifications I have won millions in some lottery I have never participated in. I guess I'd be a billionaire by now wouldn't I have been too lazy to answer to all these...
Uldis
Eleni Makantani wrote:
I just wished to share this with the rest of you. Do you receive such e-mails too?
| | | | Giles Watson
Italy
Local time: 20:56
Italian to English
In memoriam
Hi Eleni,
I've been on the wrong end of one or two phishing trips like this.
Actually, they're not even a particularly serious threat because, like you, I wouldn't even consider making a false declaration of identity in order to deceive the executors of an estate.
I do enjoy the names that these phishing routines generate, though. My favourite is a message I received from a wonderfully exotic lady called Lakeisha Manygoats.
Φιλικά,
... See more Hi Eleni,
I've been on the wrong end of one or two phishing trips like this.
Actually, they're not even a particularly serious threat because, like you, I wouldn't even consider making a false declaration of identity in order to deceive the executors of an estate.
I do enjoy the names that these phishing routines generate, though. My favourite is a message I received from a wonderfully exotic lady called Lakeisha Manygoats.
Φιλικά,
Giles ▲ Collapse
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| get them too | Feb 26, 2008 |
I get those every month. Simply report them as scam and that's it.
| | | | | | Henry Hinds
United States
Local time: 12:56
English to Spanish
+ ...
In memoriam | Start Collecting | Feb 27, 2008 |
I've collected over $56,000,000 so far, you should start collecting too!
(Just kidding, but isn't it worth it just for the entertainment value? I get several of those a week.)
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Uldis Liepkalns wrote:
several a day, including notifications I have won millions in some lottery I have never participated in. I guess I'd be a billionaire by now wouldn't I have been too lazy to answer to all these...
Uldis
I do not receive too much spam since most of them are "killed" on the server. Regular mail passes through the filter of course.
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Nikolaj Widenmann
United States
Local time: 12:56
Member (2007)
Danish to English
+ ...
| My rich unknown relative died in an airline crash | Feb 27, 2008 |
A few months ago, an attorney-at-law based in Malaysia sent me a couple of emails urging me to act now to cash in on some inheritance left by "Mike Widenmann", who perished in an airline crash in the Persian Gulf Region in 2001. It came complete with a CNN news link to the disaster (though the accident apparently did happen, CNN had no details on poor old Mike). And just to make it easier for me to read, the entire text was in bold type.
I considered cashing in, not to mention add... See more A few months ago, an attorney-at-law based in Malaysia sent me a couple of emails urging me to act now to cash in on some inheritance left by "Mike Widenmann", who perished in an airline crash in the Persian Gulf Region in 2001. It came complete with a CNN news link to the disaster (though the accident apparently did happen, CNN had no details on poor old Mike). And just to make it easier for me to read, the entire text was in bold type.
I considered cashing in, not to mention adding Mike to my very extensive family history file; somehow years of research spanning five centuries had allowed our millionaire relative to go unnoticed.
In the end, I decided that I would end up paying more taxes than I would ever want to. Good thing I didn't go for it; I would not have qualified for this year's US government check to help us stay out of a recession. Looking at it from that point of view, I may have just saved the United States, and possibly the whole world, from another Great Depression. And that has to be worth a lot more money than what old Mike ever carried to his grave in the Persian Gulf.
In the end, I blocked this person's emails from reaching me, and I have been living merrily ever since as a middle-class citizen.
Now I'm off for lunch. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Got You Beat Henry! | Feb 28, 2008 |
[quote]Henry Hinds wrote:
I've collected over $56,000,000 so far...
I've got you beat Henry! So far I've amassed about $973,006,543.00 based on such e-mails.
I get them everyday.
[Edited at 2008-02-28 01:32]
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