How many times you have received an email claiming your relative has passed away and left you something to inherit? Cash, properties, investments?
The email may just ask you to reply, in order to start the process. Or, it may “just” ask you for your name, phone number, address, and so on.
Here is one example of such emails:
We blurred the name and emails addresses, even though the name is fake and email addresses are for the scam purpose only. We don’t want to bring anyone with the same or similar credentials into a position of being identified with this. 🙂
Anyway, the sender’s email is GMAIL based, the first flag. The email asked to be replied to is different, with .co.uk ending as the alleged solicitor is UK based we guess. In fact, the perpetrator is pretending that, and uses the co.uk email to help the authenticity of the email.
Going further, you can immediately notice that the sender does not provide any other sort of contact like phone number, address, the name of the employer/company, and so on. The signature is just the name. That is the second flag.
Then, receiving an emails of such nature would tell you the sender has already identify you, yet there is no salutation at the beginning, mentioning your name, maybe? Third flag.
Further, the email is asking you for you personal information on the first attempt, fourth flag.
Finally, the whole idea of inheriting something and being contacted in this way, out of the blue, is at least a bit suspicious. We know that the offender being behind this is counting on people that may have someone in UK who could possibly fit the vague description provided in email, so that they jump into this without thinking much.
But, if you just take a couple of steps back, and take another look into this email, you yourself can conclude that this is a plan scam, and that the whole idea about inheritance is crazy.
Anyhow, never fall for emails like this, and never click any links if the are inside a such email.