You receive an email seemingly from a lawyer. It’s about a client of his who left $11 million but no will.

The email starts

Attn: Sir / Madam,

I am the personal attorney to Robert Fitzpatrick, an American who was a consultant with Shell UK LTD here in London, who shall be referred to as my client. Unfortunately my client lost his life on Boeing Egypt Air Flight 990, which crashed into the Atlantic Ocean on October 31st, 1999 and left no clear beneficiary as Next of Kin except some vital documents related to the deposit still with me.

All efforts by me to trace his Next of Kin proved abortive because he did not make any will prior to his death. Since then I have made several inquiries to locate any of my late clients extended relatives and this has proved unsuccessful. After my several unsuccessful attempts to locate any member of his family hence I contacted you.

Then the lawyer offers to share the rewards with you if the money can be paid into your account.

There are lots of scams where the scammer offers you huge amounts of money for carrying out a simple task, such as allowing the money to transfer through your bank account or paying an upfront processing fee etc. This scam works on the basis of offering riches but on a 50:50 split with the email sender’s

The email continues
Consequent upon this, my idea is that we can have a deal/agreement and I am going to do this legally with your name as the bona fide beneficiary of the amount in question as I have all legal document to back our claim, i seek your consent to present you as the next of kin to the deceased so that the proceeds of this account valued at $11 Million US dollars can be paid to your account abroad, note that 40% of this money will be for you, in respect to the provision of a foreign account and 50% for me, 10% will be used for the reimbursement of any expenditure we may incur in the cause of the transaction.

I guarantee that this will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that will protect you from any breach of the law, all I need from you is your utmost collaboration and sincerity for us to thrive in this deal. Get back to me if you are ready to assist me.

This is a simple pre-payment scam. At some point you will have to pay a small sum to release the funds, or maybe it’s a processing free or similar. Once you pay, the scammer then finds another reason for you to pay more. Once you stop paying the scammer disappears.

There is no stack of cash.

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