Scam

[W. Gray]

Not sure where I first heard about this particular scam but today I received an Email advising that I was the only living relation who could be found of a rich relative who had recently died in England.

The Email explained that I would be sent the 1.6 million dollars due me as soon as I wired a $365 processing fee to to an overseas bank.

This is the first one I have received and it is a bit unsettling to wonder how they got my Email.

[Jane]

Just to let you know, I receive about 6 a week. They have never ask for money they just want all my personal information. I just received one Monday the used the name of a Dr Ryan. I used Google and looked him up,I then contacted him. He emailed right back  that he did not know that person and that he was turning the information over to the internet service he uses.
I then received an email from his internet service tell us it was a scam and they would delete both of our email addresses from the site they had found.

What I have learned is, do not open an email up if you do not know who it is from, 100 percent of them are from overseas.
Just turn it in as spam and they will look into it.
Army Mom

[tessa&lyle]

I received an email about one month ago just like this about inheriting money...I wrote them
back and told them that I was going to contact my lawyer about this money situation they
were giving out...and no one would ever reply back...so yah...I don't know how they got
my email either...because I just email friends and family....Tessa

[W. Gray]

I think these people are operating out of Nigeria or Liberia, I cannot remember which.

They probably send out hundreds, if not thousands, of these Emails a week and one would think there are a few respondents biting or these yahoos would give it up.

[Jo McDonald]

I have received several telephone calls saying that as a Medicare recipient, I should be informed of the latest changes that are about to come into effect - and to press 9 and get the full information..........SO OF COURSE I immediately hang up.  I have do not call -- but still get some calls from "scammers" and telemarketers.

[Joanna]

I have been getting a real rash of Nigerian emails and PayPal/Ebay spoof emails the last week and a half.  I don't know what happened to spur it; my spam filter used to catch nearly all of them, but about 6 have got through lately.  I call them all "Nigerian" though some claim to come from different countries.  It would be unbelievable if we knew how many people fall for those things, even in small town Kansas.

[Calibritwo]

we received one of these recently and they had our families last name and said they were trying to trace relatives of someone with our last name and we needed to send them our account number and bank we used so that they could transfer the check we were to inherit into our account. Naturally I just got rid of that, but I too wonder how many people fall for this stuff. We have also heard of several "Bad" sites getting through on peoples E mail lately, somethings going on we need to be more aware of. I know that I am going to be even more careful of what I opening! Thanks
for bringing this to our attention.

[T. Sackett]

     There was a news story in the Wichita Eagle on January 30th regarding a scam.  It's got a different twist.

    http://www.kansas.com/213/story/296047.html

[sixdogsmom]

Usually people get stung by these scams because of greed. The appeal of something for nothing is very strong, often stronger than common sense! The secret is not to respond to anything involving money without a serious think through, and maybe the input of a trusted third person. Usually just using a third person as a sounding board is enough to bring good sense to the forefront!

[MarineMom]

In answer to the ?? as to where the scammers get our email address it is from forwarded emails whenever you fwd something to a friend it has your email addy attached if they then fwd it to another friend your email goes along for the ride you should try to make sure all your friends remove your email from things before they forward it on. Or set up a junk email (yahoo hotmail ect) that you can send fwds from so your primary email does not go anywhere. Also you should never reply to any of these scam emails with messages to stop because you will have validated your email address, they now have your computer id# and they will keep trying to get you to fall for something. Best thing to do is report them as spam and just delete them.