Unknown causin left me 7.5 million Euros :)

[bobson]

I got a letter from Attorney from Belgium that my unknown cousin left me 7, 500 000 Euros!!

Finally I can afford to buy 25" Obsession and full set of Ethos eyepieces :)

My wife is so excited that she wants me to contact this moron and give him at least my email address. Who knows she said, maybe its true :) The sad thing is there are so many people who will respond to such a letter thinking exactly that.

Beware of this kind of fraud!

bob

[ballaratdragons]

You mean they sent an actual paper letter???

I get several of these emails every day, but never heard of a paper one :rolleyes:

I guess they realise not many people fall for the email scam any more so they are reverting back to snail mail.

[renormalised]

In your position, the best way is to contact the Belgian Consulate here in Oz and find out if the attorney your received the letter off is a member of a legitimate law firm. Then, contact the firm and confirm that the letter is legitimate, or not. You'll know very quickly if this whole thing is a scam.

If it's for real, then you've just inherited over $10.75 million dollars:)

Here's a story that I was told about some 7-8 years ago by a lady who received an inheritance off an unknown distant cousin. This lady had received a letter from a law firm in England about a cousin who had recently passed away and had left a sizable inheritance. Apparently, this cousin had no living relatives in his family and had been searching for the eldest surviving member of the main line of family. There were relatives in England but none of them were in the right line of the family, though they had received some money out of the estate. The law firm had traced the family out to Australia to this lady and her family out here and she was the eldest of the line out here. Turns out, this lady's family were the original doctors that setup Harley St in England and owned not only the clinics and hospital there, but also owned a considerable estate....some 4500 acres of prime manicured grounds and a whopping big mansion. Bu that wasn't all of it....they also had other properties throughout England...and....975million pounds in the Bank of England. She was the sole heir of the entire fortune!!!!. All she needed was a birth certificate of one of her ancestors to prove her rights to the inheritance and she was looking for it at the time we spoke.

I think she managed to find the birth certificate, from what I can gather from later news that I had heard. So, she went from just an average person to being a billionaire.

Just goes to show you that you can never know about these things:)

[GeoffW1]

Fat chance, regrettably :(

[renormalised]

There's no way of knowing unless you make the effort to find out, in these situations. You have to be careful, but it's best to do the research and legwork just to be sure about it.

[DavidU]

At least a letter is a tad more believable than an email because it takes a lot more effort & expense to send a letter.
As Carl said, look into it.

[Octane]

The letters have been around longer than the emails have, and as a consequence, the elderly get suckered into these traps.

H

[renormalised]

That's why they need to look into it and make sure it's legit. If not, then they can be reported to the proper authorities.

If it's legit, then how lucky would you be!!!.

[Ric]

As Carl said it's probably worth doing a bit of background reasearch.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

A phone call to the embassy is probably worth it.

[DRCORTEX]

I've won the lotto so many times I should be able to get NASA out of the poo!

Now wheres that money! :)

Best fun,, is simply leading them on - waste their time :)

You'll usually find theres some kind of "charge" to get the money to you - that's a pure and simple giveaway. What, they can't deduct the $200 handleing charge from the 20,000,000 mil you have just won - hahahaha :)

Cheers
DOC

[sheeny]

Yeah, yeah, yeah... I got a similar letter from attorney's in Spain a few years ago. They used a law company's name and very similar letter head. The only different was 1 character different in the URL for their web site and the PO Box was one character different as well.

The legit solicitors were very interested! I never heard anything about it though...

Al.

[bobson]

I sent him email asking for more details to see what is he going to say :)

Its a big letter and I cant be bothered to scan it to post it here. He claims this person was his client and left all those millions of euros in the bank. Now he wants this money otherwise bank will keep it. So he found me with the same surname as his clients and thats the reason he contacted me.

Now, he said he will give 10% to charity and other 90% we split in half! Very genorous man :) He would do everything himself as he is a barister. This has to be top secret he said at the begining of the letter. Well its not any more I guess :(

bob

[Ric]

Looks like it just went from interesting to very dodgy.

[renormalised]

We get the same thing....they seem to think people are idiots. Well, some are, but you'd have to be supremely gullible to fall for their nonsense.

Just for fun, I went onto Google Maps one day to find where these guys were posting from, in Kansas (where most of the US ones are from). It's an empty warehouse near the corner of a three way road just down the road from a turnoff onto a freeway.

[Jen]

:screwy: You got more chance of winning lotto i think :lol::lol::lol:

[bobson]

After sending him email asking for more info I received email back with explanation about the whole thing and supporting documents.

The problem is I checked websites that he sent me with whois and both are registered just last month :)

He is a barrister in Belgium but sent copy of USA passport?
His diploma with his name is from Madrid Spain?

He sent me even death certificate of the late cousin.
Form asking me my particulars.

Looks like identity fraud to me.

Here is email sent to me who wants to read it:


Dear XXXXXX,

I welcomed your quick responds to my proposal, this proves you are a
highly qualified business person and the right person to handle this
transaction with me.

Before I give you more details on the procedures may i remind you that we
have a code of conducts guiding this business deal, our rules and
regulations must not be violate or breached by any party. Please always
contact me with this email for security reasons because it is my private
email.

It's said that we must not disclose this business deal to any body,
organization or authority, that the transaction must remain a business
deal between me and you, that we must not involve a third party or
disclose any information related to this business to any single person be
it friends or relative to avoid eyebrow and to mark the success of this
legal business.

Before we proceed I want you to realize that we are not harming any body
or family, you may ask why you are to stand as the deceased next of kin
instead of a real relative of the deceased to stand for this claim, the
answer to such question is simply that Late Newman, had no existing
relative to claim his balance from the bank, since the demise of his death
in the year 2003 all effort to locate his extended relative and family
members through their consulate and foreign affairs ministries where all
in vain.

Un-operative account can no longer exist more than six years in BELGIUM
banks, after two years the account would be placed under dormant vault,
then after some four years the account must be closed as unclaimed bill if
the owner(s) or relatives of the account beneficiary fails to claim the
fund left in the account.

I have receive ultimatum of only 21(twenty one) working days as the
deceased attorney to present the deceased heir or have the account closed
as unclaimed bill, another question is when this account is closed as
unclaimed bill what happens to the money, the answer is this, 70% of the
total sum goes into government treasury account at the apex government
Bank, while 30% of this fund is shared amongst the Governing Board of the
Bank.

You will agree with that leaving this fund to disappear just like a think
wind is senseless when I have all the facilities required to claim this
fund through your help. You are to stand as the next of kin to the
deceased since you have same surname with him, that's all I need because I
have all documents and information required to make this things happen.

Before further procedure let me give you guarantee that you will not face
any queries or hindrance now or after the successful conclusion of this
business deal, you can agree with me that I can not associate my self in
any business / transaction that my bring curse or problems to my family.

The sharing Ratio remains, 10% to any Charity Organization of your choice
in your country, and the remaining 90% be shared equally between yourself
and me.

Moreover am a legal practitioner , I can not just damage my hard earned
reputation, my plan is to join politics and contest as a member of my
country national assembly so I have no reason to dent my political
carriers because of this money.

Back to the Procedures:

Without wasting much time, I will have to explain how we are due to
commence this deal. I have draft a specimen text of application, you can
find the application attached, please simply fill your name address and
telephone numbers bellow and file the application to the Bank via E-mail.

ING BANK ANTWERP
Antwerp Lange Gasthuisstraat 20
2000 Antwerp, BELGIUM
BRANCH: P.O.BOX 345,
BRUXXELLES, BELGIUM
Tel/Fax: +32 (0)2 791 91 49
E-mail: audit@ingbeonline.com (http://au.mc337.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=audit@ingbeonline.com) / ingaudit@accountant.com (http://au.mc337.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=ingaudit@accountant.com)

You are sending this application to the Director of Foreign Remittance
Dept of ING BANK ANTWERP (ING) in the person of Miss Jane KRISTOFIS, the
Director have already assured me of his maximum cooperation in this matter
as long as you can be able to provide supporting evidence to your claim,
the supporting evidence is just some documents related to this account or
some evidence of death, all this are available but I can not precise which
one will be required by the bank, but I'm here to provide any documents or
information on demand by the bank.

Please download the attached application and send to the bank now to
signal the commencement of this legal business deal, I'm getting my self
ready to appear in country for business negotiations and sharing of the
fund once this fund comes to your account, moreover your bank will not ask
you any question on how you make this fund, the bank here will send
inheritance documents to your bank to avoid questioning you, so you are
just free of any question after all. Send the application to the bank
email and provide a reachable contact details to communicate and advice
you when necessary.

Regards,
ESQ. Philip VanLeeuwen
PHILIP VAN LEUWEN & ADVOCATEN
Vlaamse Kunstlaan 3
2020 Antwerp / Antwerpen
Anvers, Belgium
TEL/FAX: +32 492 209 684
E-mail: documents1960@gmail.com (http://au.mc337.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=documents1960@gmail.com)
Website: www.vanleuwenadvocaten.com


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Busca, compara... pero busca en Qué!
Descúbrelo en http://buscar.que.es/
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Correo enviado desde http://www.ozu.es (http://www.ozu.es/)

[DavidU]

http://nl.linkedin.com/pub/dir/+/Van+leeuwen/nl-5664-Amsterdam-Area,-Netherlands

[DavidU]

http://maps.google.com.au/maps?hl=en&tab=wl&q=Vlaamse%20Kunstlaan%203%202020%20 Antwerp%20%20Anvers%2C%20Belgium

[TrevorW]

These scams have been around a long long time you will get absolutely nothing

if he asks for a bank account number make sure you have a seperate account set up with nothing in it

[Susan (Camden)]

Hi I just joined today. I got a letter too saying someone with the same surname but no living relatives left 7.5 mil euros and if I would agree to collect it he would split it with me 10% to charty amd the rest divided between us. He said he would provide the fake documentation so that I could collect the money. The letter was dated 20/8/2010 but the envelop was stamped 2008.10.19 ? It would have been nice :)

[Kevnool]

Hi Susan you and Bob and everyone must be related ......LOL.

Gonna be a shirt fight over the so called cash.

Throw it.

And by the way a very warm welcome to IIS.

Cheers Kev.

[Zaps]

Welcome to Spam City.

Every time anybody responds to these scams it encourages the scammers to continue scamming.

[bobson]

Zaps,

Dont blame me, blame my wife ok :)
After reading it to her about that woman in Britain inheriting billions she said: see who knows why not send him email to see what is he going to say.



Hehehe, imagine how pissed off he will be when I dont respond after his email thinking I am hooked lol

cheers

Dave,

I can't open that link? (the Netherlands one)

bob

[Octane]

Bob,

You might to look at www.419eater.com (http://www.419eater.com) (one of my favourite web sites) to see how you can play this mugu along for a bit.

H

[Baddad]

Hi Bobson, :)
If you have received or sent email from your real email address to this scammer. Stop all contact. Just ignore any further mail you get from him.

These scammers are outright criminals. Your email can expose your address to a scammer. It is rare but it has happened. Victims have had visits by a scammer with dire consequences.

Here is an email that is best to ignore: Do go to the 419 Eater site and there are several stories there for public entertainment.

Goodday to you.Am very sorry for you my friend, is a pity that this is how your lifeis going to end as soon as you don't comply. As you can see there isno need of introducing myself to you because I don't have any businesswith you, my duty as I am mailing you now is just to KILL/ASSASINATEyou and I have to do it as I have already been paid for that.Someone you call a friend wants you Dead by all means, and the personhave spent a lot of money on this, the person also came to us and toldme that he want you dead and he provided us with your name, pictureand other necessary information's we needed about you. So I sent myboys to track you down and they have carried out the necessaryinvestigation needed for the operation on you, and they have done thatbut I told them not to kill you that I will like to contact you andsee if your life is Important to you or not since their findings showsthat you are innocent.I called my client back and ask him of your email address which Ididn't tell him what I wanted to do with it and he gave it to me and Iam using it to contact you now. As I am writing to you now my men aremonitoring you and they are telling me everything about you.Now do you want to LIVE OR DIE? As someone has paid us to kill you.Get back to me now if you are ready to pay some fees to spare yourlife, If you are not ready for my help, then I will carry on with myjob straight-up.WARNING: DO NOT THINK OF CONTACTING THE POLICE OR EVEN TELL ANYONEBECAUSE I WILL KNOW. REMEMBER, SOMEONE WHO KNOWS YOU VERY WELL WANTYOU DEAD! I WILL EXTEND IT TO YOUR FAMILY, INCASE I NOTICE SOMETHINGFUNNY.DO NOT COME OUT ONCE IT IS 7:30PM UNTIL I MAKE OUT TIME TO SEE YOU ANDGIVE YOU THE TAPE OF MY DISCUSSION WITH THE PERSON WHO WANT YOU DEADAFTER YOU HAVE COMPLIED WITH MY DEMANDS, THEN YOU CAN USE IT TO TAKEANY LEGAL ACTION. GOOD LUCK AS I AWAIT YOUR REPLYRegardsDon.

That led to a long baiting saga. I read about the story. It is behind a "log in" they gave the scammer much pain.
If you like PM me and I can forward to you most of the story.
Quite entertaining. There are several others but that one is very good. He did not get any money.
There was no one hurt or killed and no animals were harmed in this story. The scammer suffered. The tables were turned on him.

Cheers

[space oddity]

Yes, this is a scam.I have had the same sort of things emailed and posted to me .If you look through them properly, you will find some real facts but at the same time there are some errors and inconsistencies, but it is still a scam. You will be required to send money upfront to see the "millions". Of course, the money will just disappear. Funny how so many people have these obscure relatives dying without any known relatives overseas.....
Looks like you are in the same boat as everyone else. Just have to work hard, then worker harder, then work harder still........or start some scams of your own!

[Baki]

OMG!!! My sister got the same e-mail but unfortunately she lost $65.000 and she found out it was scam but it was too late. She is left with no money and she might be getting divorced because of it. DO NOT REPLY TO THAT E-MAIL...

[DavidU]

What ! Your kidding ?!!:eyepop:

[mithrandir]

You can add snopes (http://www.snopes.com/fraud/topscams.asp) to the list of fraud and scam exposers.

[ZeroID]

Scams........ all of them.
Checkout www.419eater.com (http://www.419eater.com) for all the info you need on these idiots.
This is a group of netsavvy boys who play the scammers at their own game. The've had a number of them trapped and arrested in Sth Africa, Holland, UK.
I worked with them for a while but it gets very intensive and time consuming. I've still get a few old 'pigeon' accounts that are still being hammered with requests. Check them once in a while and the letters and bad grammar/spelling hasn't changed one bit.

I see hundreds of them every day in our incoming net filters. Hundreds ? I mean thousands.

[Astrobserver99]

I get about 30-40 of these a day:eyepop:, mostly dealing with pirate software and pills...they use to be a right pain in the head:(, but now I have set up email filters...very few get through:D.

[Baki]

No I am not. It was the same person like Bobs everything the same. She lost $65.000 and her marriage. The problem is her husband spoke to MR PHILIP VAN LEEUWEN and now he blaims her, just the deceased had different surname than Bobs. She was the one that sent the money without asking her husband and she actually borrowed that money from other people. She even got a copy of a "cheque" with her name on it and bank account details and the letter that the day has come but firstly she has to pay another $38.000. And the worse thing is that she gave him all of her personal details like copy of passport, licence, bank details,etc... Yea and there you go she just found out on the weekend it is a scam.
So people don't play with it it is all FAKE but still very professional.

[jako]

hi susan did you do anything about
phillip because i got the exact same letter, but ive noticed this guy changes his passport pics, ive also spoken to him on the phone.

[Baddad]

Hi Bobson, :)

PM me and I can advise you. I need the header of the mail. The header reveals where the mail comes from unless it is masked or proxy'ed

Or you can contact Scamwarners. Just google the name.

It sounds as a scam to me so far. Particularly because they have sent you material to try and convince you.

Cheers Marty

[OICURMT]

Can you say "troll"?

[brook1@iprimus.]

just got a letter today fron mr van leeuwen from the death of a late relative it all sounded pretty dodgy so i didnt pay attention to it but then i thought woth if its true so i send a email back saying send the documents, when they arrived and read that no third party was to get involved it sounded strange even wanting that mouch out of the money what lawyer would take that much from there client, but after that i defenitly new this was a scam!! when i seen this site id seen a identical letter that was sent to someone else and the attornys licence was exactly the same then when i got to his passport it was completely different but same name it was pretty scary seeing its happened to that many people:screwy:

[Octane]

Brook,

www.419eater.com

Go to the forums and read the Main Scambaiting Forum.

If you have some time on your hands, see if you can't waste the scumbag's time.

Warning: you'll get hooked on scambaiting. It's one of my favourite hobbies, even though I've been doing more reading than baiting lately.

H

[Draconis]

The amount of foreign lawyers/barristers/doctoers who contact me looking to transfer money into my account because some long lost relative has died in a horrible accident is astounding. I must have some really rich relatives, shame they never contact me when they are alive and share this wealth. ;)

I actually enjoy stringing these people along from my old hotmail account, its flooded with these offers and from people wanting to sell me viagra. I like to email them a few times and ask them silly questions until they eventually ask me to stop emailing them, thats a nice payoff. Always careful not to reveal any personal information of course. Amuses my easily amused mind anyway. :)

[Zaps]

The "same surname" inheritance scam is one of the oldest.

It's amazing that people are still falling for this garbage: And those of you urging the recipients of this mail to follow through are even bigger suckers.

[luigi]

I can ease you all the paperwork for just a 0.5% commission.

:) :) :)

What a great idea, a Scam scavenger (or something like that....)

[Screwdriverone]

Dear oh dear oh dear.....

That "passport" is obviously a fake....you cant use a photo from a family party or home pic on your passport....if Phillip was born in 1945 (65 years old) then why is the pic of a 70+ year old? there is no watermark covering the pic and those stars are pasted from a graphics program. I have attached a sample of what a proper passport should look like...

also, the place of issue or birth is "TAXAS" ?

Even the text that hasn't been photoshopped over the page is wrong....last time I checked its not the United State of America!

Years are listed as 1945 not just 45...

Authority of "Passport Agency"?????? come on!

Even the words above the dodgy passport number and surname are spelled wrong....Passpport? Surame?

And the other document is not even the guy's surname, Van Persie is not Van Leeuwen last time I checked?

Tell you what, if anyone falls for this scam after seeing "official" documents like that, they deserve to be fleeced......and dont get me started on the text in the email.....The director of the bank is referred to as "Him" but the director's name is Miss Jane something....

I had better stop now, I'll be here all day......

Cheers

Chris

[Octane]

Chris,

You would be surprised. You only have to read 419eater and ScamWarners to see how badly people are driven by greed.

A typical example: http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/05/15/060515fa_fact&ved=0CBMQFjAA&usg=AFQjCNEMeCs74wEHik1WPdDM_9eHmfP JCg

H

[Screwdriverone]

Link's busted H...?

You scammin' me dude?

Cheers

Chris

[Octane]

Apologies, bro. That'll teach me to copy and paste from Google.

http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/05/15/060515fa_fact

H

[space oddity]

We have received such direct letters with the same scenario. It is a scam- they will ask for an up front fee......scam, scam,scam.