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Inheritance Scams are also known as Inheritance 419 Scams, Inheritance 4-1-9 Scams, Inheritance Advanced Fee Scams.

The Scam

You receive an email (or letter or ...) telling you that someone, usually with your last name has died, and left an estate. This could be from a "lawyer", an "investigative group", an individual, etc.

[The one I got said they have been working with Nigerian Authorities, and the money has been transferred elsewhere, since I'd been having "so much trouble" getting my inheritance, and such exorbitant fees have been demanded. (Far as I know, I never got any requests, nor paid any fees, before this email came!)]

The letter says that they have searched far and wide for an heir, and have come to you, usually on the basis of your last name.

[Since mine was somewhat different, I'm working from others' descriptions.]

You are asked to send a fee (usually a fairly low dollar amount, as scams go - these work more "by volume"), to get information from which you should be able to tell if the inheritance is yours or not. This may be a list of websites or places you will need to use or contact to find out for yourself. Turns out that many times, even if it's a real inheritance, it's much smaller than the fee you've already paid.

NOTE: While it is perfectly legal for "finders" to search state databases and charge a "finder's fee" to ... "clients", most of them have no idea whether what they found is YOURS or someone else with the same name. Most of these letters charge the fee for you to even find out. Use the links in the paragraph below this indented section, to search for yourself, and save many of the fees the "finder" may charge.

And, in other cases, they will ask for your information, including banking or credit card information, and somewhere along the line there will be "problems" in retrieving the money, which will require you to send/pay more money. And if they DO get your banking or credit card information, your account may be emptied and your cards maxed out.

In many cases, you'll note that the email did NOT come to directly to your email address, but even if it did, it most likely was sent to a BUNCH of people, most with the same last names. In some cases, there really IS some type of inheritance, unclaimed property ( free search) or unclaimed money (free search from main page). BE AWARE that the amount "found" (if it is real) may be MUCH less than the fee demanded, or will belong to someone else with your last name. If you live in the United States, use the links, above in this paragraph, and for non-US, contact your government, directly, and ask where to find the information.

Note: Again, the above links are NATIONAL (US). Please be VERY careful when dealing with international "finders". As with the local, many of these are scams. If they don't use your full name in their first contact with you (or even if they do), they are most likely trying to get the fee from you for a report showing who inherited what, or what and where unclaimed money/property is that is probably not yours. They may also be "phishing" for your information.

External Inheritance Scam-Specific Links

Examples

Following are links to the version of this scam I received, or that were sent to me to "check out". I will try to "reproduce" the actual "look" of the email in my examples.

 

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