Ask Officer Michelle – Question #562
Posted by Glenn Varnon
I recently received an email that indicated I was a recipient of a 10 million dollar inheritance from a kin that had died in 2010.
The email was from a “supposed” attorney and they asked that I stand as next of kin.
Well my dad did die, but not until last year. So this is obviously a scam. Can this be prosecuted? Do I need to report this? If so, how?
Dear Glenn,
I would be careful. This does sound like a scam. If you have a family attorney, they could look into it. Crooks can easily look in publicized obituaries to find out information on deceased people, including family members. They then prey upon vulnerable people with the notion that there was some uncovered fortune left behind. I would hire an attorney to look into this.
It is very difficult to catch these people from a simple email. The suspects go to public libraries to use public computers to send out mass emails. The URL addresses are very difficult to trace.
You could do an online report at sacpd.org as a financial crime information report. If this email was sent to others who have reported it, it would give our Financial Crimes investigators something to go on. Thank you for this post. You may have helped someone else in the process.
Officer Michelle
