I received a request to be part of a banking scam and decided to play it out with false information. Below is a series of emails I received as I communicated with this obvious scam. Make sure you question anything like this because most likely somebody is trying to trick you. Indicators of a scam include broken English, asking to wire money, lack of details about the parties involved and unwillingness to give information linked to the actual conversation such as in this case, the bank’s 1800 number that I could call and ask for the so called “employee” involved.
This scam started off with a email blast, which hit one of my real email spam folders. If you google the number, names, etc. from these emails, you will find many other people have flagged this guy.
Dear Friend
I received your mail with thanks and with due respect, and without further ado I hereby state it clearly and more precisely to you once again that this proposal has nothing to do with the so called doubt or fear This is a clear and factual matter with all the valid documents intact with me
Truly I will be very much glad to share this transaction with you; please do understand that you and I myself are to work as one team to inherit this fund, hence I am your insider in the bank as the transaction commence. I advise you to feel free with me for all is going to be well with us.
I have never contacted any other person in this transaction except you.The deceased account holder with our bank is Mr. Christain Eich; He holds account number BIB4934109 with our bank. He died on July 31 year 2000 with his family. Since his death, this account has been dormant and nobody has applied to our bank for the release of this money to him or her as the next of kin/Business Partner.
I want you to arrange for a good receiving bank account into which our bank shall transfer this money in your favour as next of kin/Business Partner and you have nothing to fear since I am here, I shall be giving you all the developmental information’s from the bank as soon as the transaction commence.
Please this is a business that requires 100% absolute secret, it is a business that you don’t allow your right hand to know what your left hand is doing, On the issue of your country laws be assured that as soon as the bank is effecting the transfer they will be sending a covering letter to your home bank as a prove of the source of funds so we would not have any problem with that. There is no doubt about your eligibility as the legal next of kin /Business Partner to our deceased customer and owner of the account number number BIB4934109 with the following reasons:
(1.) Before the death of our deceased customer, His true next of kin/Business Partner was not indicated to the board of directors of the bank because of the top secrecy and confidentiality of the business which our late customer transacted with the various governments in West Africa.
(2.)Owning to his failure to indicate his next of kin /Business Partner to the officials of the bank, it is therefore impossible for the board of directors of the bank to verify the next of kin/Business Partner .
(3.) The deceased late Mr. Christain Eich did not have any relation with our bank; He was only a customer to our bank. So there is no trace either now or in future.
(4.)And for the above reasons, the managements of the bank authorized, me officially as the officer in charge of auditing and account section of the bank to verify the next of kin/Business Partner to our deceased customer.
Therefore, the bank will always abide by my official directions through the official authorization bestowed on me. And for this reasons you have nothing to fear as your interest and identity will be legally protected.
Remember that 30% of this fund has being declared for you, for your assistance in providing an account where this fund will be transferred into and for all your effort, and all other incurring expenses in course of transferring of this fund into your account.10% has been mapped out for expenses that may be incurred on the process of transferring this fund into your account. While the balance will be for me.
As soon as I hear from you, I will immediately send you the copy of the application form which you shall use to apply for the release of the fund to you.
Ahmed Zama
UBA BANK OUAGADOUGOU
BURKINA FASO
WEST-AFRICA
Private Telephone ; +22675844869
The funniest part of this email is “I have never contacted any other person in this transaction except you.“. I told him I was interested and he sent me the following form.
SUBJECT: APPLYING AS THE NEXT OF KIN /BUSINESS PARTNER TO MR CHRISTAIN EICH
…………………………
I’ ……….HEREBY APPLY TO YOUR BANK AS THE BONAFIDE OWNER OF THE BALANCE OF MY BUSINESS PARTNERS FUND IN YOUR BANK ACCOUNT ACCOUNT N?‹ BIB4934109 VALUED €15 million EUROS
SIR, I WISH TO BE INTIMATED ON THE PROCEDURES INVOLVED IN HAVING THIS FUND TRANSFERRED INTO MY ACCOUNT AS GIVEN BELOW:
BANK NAME……………………
ACCOUNT NUMBER……………………
BANK ADDRESS…………………..
I ALSO APOLOGIZE FOR NOT BEING ABLE TO APPLY SINCE 2000. IT WAS DUE TO SOME FAMILY PROBLEMS WHICH HAVE JUST BEEN SETTLED
TEL………………….
FAX…………………
OCCUPATION……
NATIONALITY…….
AGE…………………
ADDRESS…………
I WISH AN URGENT ATTENTION WILL BE GIVEN TO MY HUMBLE APPLICATION AS THE URGENCY IMPLIES ON THIS MATTER.
THANKS IN ANTICIPATION OF YOUR CO-OPERATION.
I used google to find a bank and Texas based contact info as well as made up a bank account number that matches how the bank I chose provides account numbers. I was suppose to use his banking info but put mine it to mess with him. I received the following email with URGENT as the heading.
FOREIGN REMITTANCE DIRECTOR
UNITED BANK OF AFRICA
OUAGADOUGOU BURKINA FASO
TEL/FAX 00226 32 04 32.
Email : [email protected]
