I am rich beyond my wildest dreams

[Rannoch]

The best way to play it is to make him believe you are going to part with cash. I have had many demoralised scammers on a hook.

 

[Voicon]

You need to think big, tell him he needs to fly you out to Hong Kong to meet him in person. Or failing that he need to provide a photograph of him doing something stupid.

The obvious one is a pot of custard on his Head?

 

[Rannoch]

Scammers are well aware of these trophy photos. Check 419eater.

This is a classic - https://www.4shared.com/mp3/trvRXoqDba/SingChopSing.html

 

[Mynight]

Spoiler

Hello


Thanks for your email and is content well understood, I will advise you
scan and send me the letter
and Envelop that was sent to you THROUGH EMAIL ATTACHMENT TO MY EMAIL
BOX, This is important
for me to be rest assured am dealing with the right person I contacted
for security reasons.
somebody might be claiming to be you knowing i have my name to protect.
This will enable me
bring you to the full picture of this transaction.

Note that I decided contacting you for assistance just because you bear
same last name with our
late customer which will lead to successful conclusion of this
transaction without any hitch, The
world of Banking especially is fraught with huge rewards for those who
occupy certain offices and
oversee certain portfolios.

As a banker here in Hong Kong, we see so much funds being re-assigned
daily. if we fail to act fast
putting claims to this funds, would be that when my bank is notified
about the unclaimed funds, the
Specialist Bank would be instructed and the money reverts back and
embezzled by some corrupt top officials.

We don't have to allow this to happen knowing there are Charity
Organizations all over the world in desperate
need of financial support for kids with no food or drinking water, it
has been my dream helping the less privilege
people all over the world after my services with [bank name].


I will appreciate your urgent response to enable us proceed further.

Say me well to your Family.

Zeng

Erm @Droolinggimp fancy scanning the letter for me? I'll photoshop your name/address out replacing it with "mine".

 

[rickjames]

On a kinda related note I've been scammed recently, bit of an eye opener.

Bought some sunglasses from a shop in London, get a call a few days later that a bunch of their receipts got stolen and foolishly didn't think anything of it. Cue today where I check my account and £1400 has been taken out for a hotel booking online; I assume they then try and get it refunded to a different card of their own.

Anyway bank were called, card cancelled and I'll get the money refunded. Bit shocked to be honest, can happen to anyone...

 

[Droolinggimp]

Spoiler

Hello


Thanks for your email and is content well understood, I will advise you
scan and send me the letter
and Envelop that was sent to you THROUGH EMAIL ATTACHMENT TO MY EMAIL
BOX, This is important
for me to be rest assured am dealing with the right person I contacted
for security reasons.
somebody might be claiming to be you knowing i have my name to protect.
This will enable me
bring you to the full picture of this transaction.

Note that I decided contacting you for assistance just because you bear
same last name with our
late customer which will lead to successful conclusion of this
transaction without any hitch, The
world of Banking especially is fraught with huge rewards for those who
occupy certain offices and
oversee certain portfolios.

As a banker here in Hong Kong, we see so much funds being re-assigned
daily. if we fail to act fast
putting claims to this funds, would be that when my bank is notified
about the unclaimed funds, the
Specialist Bank would be instructed and the money reverts back and
embezzled by some corrupt top officials.

We don't have to allow this to happen knowing there are Charity
Organizations all over the world in desperate
need of financial support for kids with no food or drinking water, it
has been my dream helping the less privilege
people all over the world after my services with [bank name].


I will appreciate your urgent response to enable us proceed further.

Say me well to your Family.

Zeng

Erm @Droolinggimp fancy scanning the letter for me? I'll photoshop your name/address out replacing it with "mine".

Damn sorry matey. It's been shredded I had a good sort out of all my paperwork today, bills, invoices etc and shredded what I didn't need and as this came during my sort I put it with to shred pile.

 

[Droolinggimp]

Couldn't you print off the image and scan it using OCR or something like that. I saved image to pc with the black bit after I edited it too so no other version available.

 

[Mynight]

Damn sorry matey. It's been shredded I had a good sort out of all my paperwork today, bills, invoices etc and shredded what I didn't need and as this came during my sort I put it with to shred pile.

Not an issue I can always do my best with the photo . "Sorry I already threw out the envelope".

 

[Angilion]

Yeah , i can't understand how these scams work.

OK he is asking for an insane proportion of your inherited wealth (50%), but there's no request for bank details or for you to send any money to secure some kind of transaction.

What does he get from you replying "please proceed".

Knowledge that they've landed a potentially gullible target. They probably sent quite a few letters - it's not an unusual surname so I'm sure it wouldn't be difficult to get as many as it would be practical to contact by post.

The request for payment comes later, not at the beginning. The scam requires some degree of trust, so it's more efficient to send out many letters and concentrate on building sufficient trust only with people who reply. If you start straight off with a request for money or bank details you're unlikely to get a return. Maybe it would be worth trying it if you're sending many thousands of emails, but definitely not if you're sending dozens or maybe hundreds of physical letters. Once you've got a mark on the line and exchanged a few messages with them, that's when some payment becomes "unfortunately necessary". Perhaps an administration fee. A small amount, only a couple of hundred. The main reason for that is to get the mark financially involved. Once someone has spent money on something, they are much more likely to spend more money chasing success than to write off the money they've already spent. Perhaps then a bribe to a (completely fictional, of course) civil servant of some kind who has become suspicious. This person with a suspicion something dodgy is going on doesn't know how much money is involved because they're only a minor office worker or cleaner, so this helpful person in Hong Kong can buy their silence for only £5000 and they'll pay half themself. You're getting nearly $20,000,000...that's worth paying £2500 for, obviously. Etc, etc.

An add-on to this particular version of the scam is that it involves the mark in illegal activity. What are they going to do? Go to the police and say "Hello, I thought I was a partner in a $40 million fraud but it turns out that the other person was conning me. Please get me my money back." Probably not.

 

[Angilion]

I love the bit where it's all like "You have the same name, you're probably not related but **** it, have some money".

That's the good part, though. They're not just saying "have some money" They're saying "If we work together we can get this money and split it between us and we're not really stealing it from anyone because it would only be taken by a government". That's less obviously nonsense than "have some money for no reason".

 

[deej]

OI! That's my Uncle Engr.

 

[theone8181]

Ironically if they did it for a more modest some like £100,000 i bet they con far more people as its a more believable amount.

 

[Droolinggimp]

Yeah but the gullible/non savvy see more 0s and think 'yeah baby'. Just the other week I was serving an elderly couple who had been conned out of £2k from "microsoft" - you know, those phone calls and then your PC gets hacked, handing over card details. Sad state of affairs. I know thats the opposite of the original letter posted but the same people could easily fall for this one.

 

[Semple]

Snip

Ah yeah, thanks for that, does make a bit more sense now that i see the idea of a long con.

I guess i fail to understand the stupidity of some people, and why they fall for scams like these. So the actual scam never looks obvious.

I guess it's true what they say about a fool and his money.

 

[linktoinsanity]

This is where Mynight actually becomes part of the scam, receives the money and gets arrested for fraud.

 

[Qjumper]

http://www.scmp.com/article/996454/fraudsters-offer-fake-inheritance-bank-cash-scam

Devastating news, not a Millionaire afterall, now back to work with you..

Or then again get replying and see how long you can draw this out, more kudo if you can spin it around and cost then monies..

 

[Blackjack Davy]

Knowledge that they've landed a potentially gullible target. They probably sent quite a few letters - it's not an unusual surname so I'm sure it wouldn't be difficult to get as many as it would be practical to contact by post.

I'll have to warn my mother, she's already had two phone calls from scammers both nearly managed to empty her bank account. Sigh.

 

[Rannoch]

I got a reply from him. Let battle commence.

 

[HazardO]

Plot twist: Vargas has received a reply from Mynight!

 

[Mak3R]

The money owners all died in 2004, so he's been trying for 13 years to find a beneficiary. That persistence alone makes this legit.