What do you make of this?????

joenic

Hi
Sorry if this is in the wrong place - just wanted some advice from you all as to what action to take on this if any!!!!
An elderly friend who lives alone received this letter today through the post addressed to her :-
Dear xxxxxxxxxx
I am xxxxx xxxxxxx and I work for xxxxx(well known reputable) Bank London UK. I was the Accountant Officer to a deceased’s account, one of our foreign customers. While he banked with us, we oversaw his accounts and other official obligations as my office demanded me being his accounts officer. Unfortunately, he died together with his entire family in the plane crash of 31 October 1999 on board the Egyptian Airline 990 alongside other passengers. Since his death, none of his next of kin or relations has come forward to lay claims to this money as the heir. We cannot release the fund from this account unless someone applies for a claim as the next of kin to the deceased as indicated according to the law. Most likely, if there are next of kin; they all get an equal share. If there are (mysteriously) no next of kin (claiming or other wise), the money goes to the state government.
Having made a very frenetic and exhaustive search for any family member that would lay claim to this fund I have decided to take my chance with you. I now seek your permission to have you stand as next of kin to the deceased as I have all documentations including his certified Death Certificate that will facilitate your stand as next of kin to him as he had a closing balance of £15, 000,000.00 (fifteen million pounds sterling) here in our bank in London. I also have secured from the Probate an Order of Mandamus to locate any member of the deceased’s family to become beneficiary of this fund.

If this proposal is acceptable by you, please send you reply to me as soon as possible so as to enable us commence. Please reply to my e-mail:
[EMAIL="xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@yahoo.co.uk"]xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@yahoo.co.uk[/EMAIL]
Regards,
Mr xxxxxxxxx xxxxxxx
It was sent on plain paper with no other address details so its obviously dodgy but has anyone had any experience of a similar type of letter??
Thanks to you all in advance

Mrs_B_12

It's a scam, if you do a search on Google for the phrase "Probate an Order of Mandamus" you will see loads of results. Chuck it in the bin.

sloppychops

Yep there are loads of these types of scams doing the rounds online and through the post.Do as Mrs B says and bin it.

saxy1

I've had this, total scam, bin it! I even had similar mails saying I had inherited money from my family, which were refering to my surname (new married name) - I have only been married a few months, so they could definitely not be anything to do with me!! burn it!!

Savvy_Sue

Or send it to the local police station, for the attention of the Fraud section. They probably have several hundred already, but some of them are acted on!

Also something may go out to local Neighbourhood Watch coordinators, thus putting other people on their guard. Might even go in the local paper, without identifying your friend, of course!

bright_side

My other half got one of these letters yesterday too :rolleyes:

tomstickland

The best thing to do would be to invent an email warning people that if they receive this letter then they will need to change all the locks in their house and not go out for 4 months because someone is watching them. Then post it to everyone you know with "this is a true story" as the title. Obviously post it on MSE too. Hopefully some trading standards will believe it as well and it'll gradually become fact and merrily forwarded round the world for a number of years.

kickstart_3

Its a '419 er '.. hundreds of them about ..must get 10 a day , just delete it and forget about it.

saxy1

If you dont want the fifteen million, i'll have it!!!

Seriously though, anyone can get a free yahoo or hotmail address, always be on guard for these.

joenic

Thanks to all for your comments. Its worrying though when they prey on the older generation. The recipient was in her seventies - and it did bother her!!

Glad

Hi, Martin’s asked me to post this in these circumstances: I’ve asked Board Guides to move threads if they’ll receive a better response elsewhere(please see this rule) so this post/thread has been moved to another board, where it should get more replies. If you have any questions about this policy please email [EMAIL="abuse@moneysavingexpert.com"]abuse@moneysavingexpert.com[/EMAIL].