Internet advance-fee scams and how to report them

I am sure that many readers will have come across the typical internet scams that seem to come mainly from individuals based in Africa and seem to revolve around accessing funds from the estate of a deceased individual who has no beneficiaries or funds that have been misappropriated by the country’s former leader etc. All that they need are your bank account details so they can get the funds released and you will of course share in the bounty!

I recently received an interesting version of this scam. Its main feature was that it appeared to come from an e mail address at one of the big four UK banks! While it purports to come from the UK, its use of English is typical of the overseas versions!

I am reproducing it below – having removed the bank's details.

”Dear Sir/Madam

I humbly crave your indulgence in sending you this email and should it not meet your business or personal ethics, please accept my apologies in advance.

My name is John V…….., the Finance Director and the XXXX Group with head office at YY ZZZ Street, London EC…..

I am writing this letter to solicit your support and assistance to carry out a project in one of our numerous branches where lying in an in-active account is the sum of $30,000,000 (Thirty Million United States Dollars) belonging to a foreign customer by name Dr. M W who died with his wife and two kids in a ghastly car crash while on vacation in the Caribbean Islands.

Since he died the Bank has been expecting his next of kin to come forward for necessary actions in respect to funds claiming.

Unfortunately, after investigations we found out that he has no family members who are aware of the existence of such an amount and as such have decided to do business with you, alongside the concerned officials here in the bank.

You stand in as the next of kin of late Dr. MW, and then the money will be released to you, after the due processes have been followed.

Obviously we do not want this money to go into the Bank Treasury because the banking law and guideline stipulates that if such money remains unclaimed for a period of 5 years the money will be transferred into the Banks Treasury as an unclaimed debt.

For your partictipation in the business, 20% of the funds will be yours, 75% will be ours, while 5% will be for any expenses incurred during the transaction.

Please reach me at the above electronic mail address, if willing to do business with me.

Best Regards, JV”

As I usually do with such e mails I forwarded a copy to a contact at the Fraud Squad, who collect such e mails. He has told me that there is now a new procedure by which your ISP can deal with such e mails. This is as follows:

”On first receipt of one of these scam-type e-mails, the receipient should click on the reply function, but not send anything. This act will cause the real e-mail address of the sender to be revealed.

Once this has been acquired, the whole message should be forwarded to the recipients ISP, at "abuse@....", (eg abuse@aol.com). The ISP will then have the sender's address shut down, possibly within the hour!

Only the original recipient can do this, meaning that you or I would not be able to do it on their behalf. Otherwise, I would be happy to assist in this regard!”