An interesting twist on the familiar Nigerian 419 fraud: declaring me an heir to someone with whom I share a last name.
Dear Ajmal,
Before I introduce myself, I wish to inform you that this letter is not a hoax mail and I urge you to treat it serious. I am Dr. Muhammad Khalil Hasan, a banker of the Mashreq Bank Plc Dubai, UAE. I am the Accounts officer of Engineer Michael Ajmal, a national of your Country, who was until his death, a contractor and Crude Oil merchant in UAE.
So he shares my last name plus my country!
Michael, his wife and their children were involved in the Kenya airline plane crash on the 31th Jan. 2000. Since then I as his accounts officer in the bank, have made several enquiries to locate any of Michael’s extended relatives/available next of kin, without any success. I came across your name and contact, on the course of my personal searching for Michael’s relations, so I decided to contact you for this project.
That air crash did happen.
left behind in a fixed deposit account by Michael, before they get confiscated or declared unserviceable by my bank. The board of my bank, has issued a notice that after 2 months from now and no next of kin shown up for the claim, the funds will be confiscated and declared unserviceable. Since I and my team have been unsuccessful in locating Michael’s relatives for sometime now, I seek your consent to present you as the Next of Kin of the deceased since you are a foreigner and you have the same last name with Michael, so that the proceed of this deposit valued at $USD 21.3 Million Dollars can be released to you.
The bank will release the funds to any foreigner who has all related information/documents to the bank account. I am in charge of this matter in my bank, because I am his accounts officer. Your application will be directed to my department for verification and approval. Everything is under my control.
I shall provide you all the information and copy of the certificate of deposit issued to Michael when he deposited the funds. I shall also introduce you to
an attorney who shall represent you in all the appropriate offices for the claim. Please, find in the attachment the family picture of Michael which is in his file. This is just to proof to you that my proposal is genuine.
No photo in the email.
I also have all necessary information we need for the claim and once the money is transferred to you, I shall destroy all the documents used for the claim and leave no traces. After everything, you shall have 40% of the total
sum, while 60% for me.
All requires is your honest cooperation to enable us see this business successful. I guarantee that this will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that will protect you from any breach of the law. Michael
was a very good man and it is not wise to allow his hard earned wealth to be stolen by the greedy directors of my bank.
Honest cooperation? Legitimate arrangement? Very good man? greedy directors? Interesting phrases!
Further details awaits your response by email. PLEASE, TREAT THIS PROPOSAL AS TOP SECRET. Please, confirm the receipt of the picture in the attachment, as it was difficult to attach.
did u really get this email? this is just way to unbelievable..(i think u should write back just for kicks)
ok never mind..dont email them for kicks!
rabs: Yes, I did get this email yesterday. I guess this guy had a list of names and email addresses for his spam.
Too weird.
You are not the only one who received that letter. Mine has a couple of details that are different like the person’s name and amount of money and such but the letter reads exactly the same and it’s from the same back.
I would really like to know how many people have recieved this letter.
Having seen my name used in a SPAM offering millions of dollars for grabs, some sensible recipients approached me through the bank’s web site in order to verify the facts. Now this SPAM has grown more stupid, offering a fake photo ID card of the imposter claiming to be me. Hope no one gets hurt because of this.
I had got this spam 2 weeks ago. He sent his personal phone number and I was talking to him!
What do you think “real” Mr. Gaya?
I had got this spam 2 weeks ago. He sent his personal phone number and I was talking to him!
What do you think “real” Mr. Gaya?
The “spammer” had my name AND address. Do I have anything to fear from an identity theft perspective. I did not reply. Thanks.
Nancy: Probably not since name and address (email or mailing?) is generally public knowledge, but it is always a good diea to guard against identity theft.
Both my daughter and I got personalized letters like this in our emails. Scary to think they know names and such.