FAX SCAM ALERT » Anthony Adams: ABC Financial Solutions Limited Scam Letter

My ever-useful e-mail spam blocker is doing well at blocking terribly annoying spam e-mails, scam letters and other Internet garbage. However, today I received an official looking letter via fax (facsimile) from a company called ABC Financial Solutions Limited from the United Kingdom. The letter states that Mr. Anthony Adams, the company chief auditor has discovered an unused account from a deceased foreigner with surname same as mine and offering to help him transfer the amount of $15.5 million.

We commonly use facsimile machines for everyday business. It’s a very useful tool whenever a client requires a hard copy of a document. At first, I thought the letter was legit with its neat introduction, plus it has my correct name and business address but it’s really too good to be true. Therefore, I googled it and found out that it’s a variation of the usual e-mail scams/fraud. 

Fax can be simulated using web services, and made untraceable by the use of prepaid phones connected to mobile fax machines or by use of a public fax machine. Thus, scammers posing as business entities can also use fax transmissions as an anonymous form of communication. Yes, scammers can invest some expenses to lure people, as the prepaid phone and fax equipment cost more than e-mail, and to a skeptical victim fax transmissions can be more believable.

We should be cautious not to respond to suspicious letters, especially those requesting for personal or financial information. We should also be aware that a lot of these scams originate from foreign countries, and recovery of stolen funds, if we became victims is highly unlikely.

Here’s the content of the letter:

Mr. Anthony Adams
ABC FINANCIAL SOLUTIONS LIMITED
72 New Cavendish Street,
London. WIM 8AU. United Kingdom
Private Tel: +447924711015
Private Fax: +44 208 082 5721

Date: 26th July 2010

Mr. ___(My name)
Adress: (My Address)

I am Mr. Anthony Adams, the Chief Auditor of ABC Financial Solution Limited, a finance and investment management company in the United Kingdom. In the course of performing my duties in the company as a auditor, I discovered floating money in a domiciliary account which was opened in 1994 belonging to a foreigner Mr. __________ who died in 1999. All effort to track any member of his nuclear and extended family or next of kin has failed. I conscripted the head of my department to the plot (as a deal cannot be successful without his approval) and we decided to divert the fund for our private use. I have been mandated to contact you to stand in as his next of kin since you bear the same last name with him, this will enable us present you to my company as his next of kin. He died without leaving an Heir of a Will.

My intention is to transfer the sum of Fifteen Million Five Hundred Thousand United States dollars (US$15,500.00) in the aforementioned account to a safe account overseas for our private use. I am proposing that you partner with us since you bear the same last name with the late account holder and provide a bank account or open a new one that will serve the purpose of receiving this fund. For your assistance and participation in this venture, we are ready to part with a thirty percent (30%) of the entire funds i.e. Four Million Six Hundred and Fifty Thousand United States dollars (US$4,650,000.00) as your share. On scrutinizing the deceased records and files with our finance company, I discovered that:

(1) No one has operated this account since 1999. (2) He died without any next of kin; hence the money has been floating. (3) No other person knows about this account.

If the money is not remitted urgently, it will be declared as unclaimed fund and converted to the company’s funds, which will benefit only the executive directors of my firm. This money can be approved and paid to you legally once I present you as the next of kin and secure all the documentary approvals and certifications in your name and also guide you stage by stage on how to make your claims applications to ensure its approval and payment.

I came to the Philippines in search of a credible person with the same name with the deceased and would have been back to UK by the time you are reading this letter.

Please reply by faxing back to me a copy of my letter and stating your direct telephone and fax number on it (please buy a fax machine if you do not have because we cannot do the business without a fax number since most of our correspondences will be by fax) so that I can send you detailed information on the modalities of my proposition. The entire process leading to the crediting of your bank with the inherited funds will be completed within 14 working days. I implore you to keep this proposition confidential as it is failure proof, 100% risk free and legal. I look forward to your prompt response as I can be reached on my direct telephone number.

Best Regards
Yours truly,

Mr. Anthony Adams
Private Phone: 0044 792 471 1015
Private Fax: 0044 208 082 5721

Letter Variations:
http://scamoftheday.com/wordpress/2010/04/12/my-dear-this-is-not-junk-or-spam/
http://rorybaust.wordpress.com/2010/07/08/this-look-suspicious-or-legit/

References:

» Hawaii Police Media Release - Warning the public about a mail scam.
» Advance Fee Fraud 

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