I Presume, Another Scam???

[Alistairr]

I have just received this e-mail.
Where do they get you name from??

-----------------------------------
Mr Stephen Babacar.
Principal Auditor:
BANK OF AFRICA (BOA)
DAKAR-SENEGAL.Branch.
Email:stephen_babacar@box.az
Tel: +221-5478858

I am Mr Stephen Babacar from the Bank of Africa.(BOA), Dakar Senegal Branch.I am very sorry if this is an inconvinience in any way, just that i need you to see m through with this transfer. This business request may seem strange, but I crave your indulgence and pray you view it seriously as I am convinced that you would be capable to provide me with a solution to a money transfer.
On June 16, 2000, a German Property magnate and Oil consultant/contractor with Petroleum Corporation, Mr.Andreas Schranner made a numbered time (fixed) deposit for twelve calendar months,
valued at US$16,500,000.00(sixteen Million Five Hundred Thousand Dollars )in my branch upon maturity. I sent a routine notification to his forwarding address but got no reply.
After a month, we sent a reminder and finally we discovered from his contract employers (the Petroleum Corporation) that Mr.Andreas Schranner died in an air crash with his family. You can view this link for verification:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/859479.stm

On further investigation, I found out that he died without making a WILL and attempts to trace his next of kin were fruitless. I therefore made further investigation and discovered that Mr.Andreas Schranner did not declare any next of kin or relations in all his official documents, including his bank deposit paperwork. This sum of US$16,500,000.00 and the interest is being rolled over with the principal sum at the end of each year. No one will ever come forward to claim it According to african law, at the expiration of FIVE years, the money will revert to the ownership of the Senegal Government if nobody applies to claim the fund.
Consequently, my proposal is that I will like you as a foreigner to stand as the next of kin to Mr.Andreas Schranner.
This is simple, I will like you to provide immediately your full name and address so that the Attorney will prepare the necessary documents and affidavits which will put you in place as the next of kin.We shall employ the service of two attorneys for the drafting and notarization of the WILL and obtain the necessary documents and letter of probate administration in your favour for the transfer into any bank account in any part of the world which you will provide.We will then facilitate the transfer of this money to you as the beneficiary/next of kin.The money will be paid into your account for us to share in ratio of 60% for me and 30% for you and 10 % will be set aside for expenses incured during the business. There is no risk at all,the paperwork for this transaction will be done by the attorney and my position as the Principal Auditor with the help of the branch Manager guarantees the successful execution of this transaction. If you are interested, please reply immediately via the private email address below, upon your responses, I shall provide you with more details and relevant documents that will help you understand the transaction.
Please observe utmost confidentiality and be rest assured that this transaction would be most profitable for both of us because I shall require your assistance to invest my share in your country.
Please upon the receipt of this mail message, send to me the following to enable me start the processing of the fund transfer into your bank account:
1.) Bank details to be used (that is banks name and account number)
2.) The beneficiary's name.
3.) Your private / official telephone and fax number.
Awaiting your Urgent Reply via my private email:stephen_babacar@box.az
or call me on my private telephone number: +221-5478858
Thanks and God bless.

Best regards
Stephen Babacar.
--------------------------------------

Anyway, i presume its another Fraudulent Scam E-mail Only fit for the Bin.
Correct?

Cheers

Alistair.

 

[Roy]

Occhc Alistair---you've blown the confidentiality clause bit now.... Could have been the fiancial solution to your new baby and new boat--- NOT.

This one comes around in different guises every few months... makes you wonder if anyone gets done by it although we hear of folk that do fall for it.

 

[mikewilkes]

He must have read your post about the baby and just wants to give the wee soul a good start in life. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[DavidJ]

No not a scam at all....I am in fact the son of Andreas Schranner and will be claiming my inheritance. Thanks for letting me know.
David (Schranner)

 

[gonfishing]

Hi Alistair
I have lost count how many similar mails like these I get, My personal email account doesn't suffer, but the business one gets a bit of a bashing, I just get the spam filter trained and they change the format so it starts all over again!!.
Bloody nuisance!

When are you coming down or is everything on hold at the moment??

 

[Alistairr]

Yes, my Spam filter usually stops most of these type of things, but this one seem to get through.

I'm not sure when i'm coming down, But it is likely that i will be flying down by myself, to try it and then back on the same day now. I'll let you know when that is nearer the time.

Cheers

 

[itsonlymoney]

Never had any email scams but had loads of fax scams in the past some very similar. In fact this guys name even sounds familiar. Unbeleivable that people could fall for this crap, and they must do or the scam would not exist in the first place.
Ian

 

[bobupanddown]

It all sounds very plausible to me.
In fact if you send me a couple of hundred I will sort it out for you.

 

[Landale]

It's a 419 see here named after the relevent bit of the Nigerian Criminal code.

We wound one of these guys up for some time a while ago, got him to visit several places in Amsterdam (where he was living) for a meeting which of course we wern't at. It was fun doing the research for the meeting, but eventually he gave up on us I think he twigged /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif after we said be carrying a copy of the Times amd wearing a red carnation as identification!

Sadly many people still fall for them.

 

[traceyandsteve]

how's the scam work ? has anyone lost money being scammed this way ?

 

[HeadMistress]

Not only is it a scam, but he's also asking you help him steal the money!

How it works (and yes, quite a few people have lost money this way): you send him your banking information to transfer the money into your account, but he uses it to clean OUT your account instead.

 

[BrendanS]

Peggy, that's just another myth I'm afraid. You cannot have your account cleaned out just by providing account details (unless you give them passwords etc etc). The banks wouldn't last long, if it were that easy to remove money from peoples accounts.


The way the scam actually works is that they run into last minute hitches and need to you send them some money to smooth the way (bribe people, hire lawyer or whatever). So the scam depends on people's greed, and actually sending money to the scamsters, not in the scamsters cleaning peoples accounts out remotely. It's all very well documented.

 

[makkers]

Play them at there own game, this guy does and has a laugh at their expense........

http://www.419eater.com/index.htm

 

[HeadMistress]

Not a myth, but apparently just outdated now. 'Cuz this scam has existed for at least 10 years (it was just about that long ago that I got the first one--just before there was an internet as we know it today) and originated in Nigeria. In those days, they didn't use email, but sent letters via the postal service to CEOs of smaller companies. They wanted 3 things: a blank sheet of my company letterhead, a blank company invoice, and my bank transmittal and account #s. I knew when I received the letter that it HAD to be a scam, but couldn't figure out how it worked till I asked a friend who was with the FBI.

Obviously, as electronic and internet banking has evolved and useage has increased the potential for identity theft, banks have added security measures that now make it impossible for 'em draft money from an account that easily any more, so they've been forced to revise the scam. And once the 'net was up and running, it didn't take 'em long to figure out that email was a lot cheaper than stationery and postage stamps, either! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif And, of course, others have taken up where the original Nigerian scammers left off, too.

But that IS how it originally worked. Stories of people who'd fallen for it and had their accounts cleaned out, and how, were all over the news then.

 

[plk987]

On a similar topic, people with online bank accounts should be very careful to ensure security. Back in January, my personal bank account was emptied of several thousand pounds, and the company account lost over £10k and had £20k bounced in and out in a money laundering exercise. The cause was traced to a trojan on the laptop in our site office. We were running what we thought was all the right software, AVG antivirus, windows firewall and Spybot, but the trojan remained undetected. We have now upgraded to Macaffe (which found the trojan)

So the advice is make sure you run the best software available...it could work out cheaper in the long run as we only got a small proportion of the money back.