Comedy scam efforts are good for a laugh but others are very serious - Steve Cardownie
I have written before about some of the tactics that scammers use to part us from our money and I am prompted to do so again due to a letter I received last week.
It supposedly came from a certain Dr Lucas Waia, Custodian Director and Financial Adviser, Investment Portfolio Manager, with United Builders (HK) Ltd, based in Hong Kong.
It informs me that my name was lifted from “your country’s public record while searching for a last name similar to my late client’s, a business magnate by name Mr Jaxon Cardownie, who lived and worked with the Energy Company here in Hong Kong for over two (2) decades prior to his death. He died of a heart attack a year after the demise of his wife and two children in a car accident, which occurred in August 2016.”
The letter goes on “Do not be amazed with this letter. I am contacting you based on trust and confidentiality that will be attached to this transaction. I decided to contact you after a series of unsuccessful attempts to locate any of his extended family members.”
Apparently, my late lamented relative left $24,200,000 in an unclaimed life insurance policy “Payable On Death” and I am the sole beneficiary.
Once I claim and receive the money, I am to split it on a 50/50 basis with Dr Waia’s company which, at over $12 million, is a tidy bit of business for him - the greedy (insert an expletive of your choice.)
And here is the kicker that scammers deploy to ensure that they have a better chance of entrapping you.
“Please mind that we don’t need to make undue publicity as this can hamper the process of taking into cognizance that we are not quite sure if you are really related.”
So don’t discuss this with anyone, for fear that they might expose the scam!
I am reassured (not) as the good doctor informs me that “if you give me your consent and follow my instructions the policy benefit will be released to you. Mind you that this transaction is risk free; there is no iota of risk connected to this dealing.”
In the words of Rikki Fulton’s the Rev IM Jolly “You’ve got to laugh.”
It is hard to believe that some people may be taken in by this ham-fisted scam but I can only assume that this must be so, as these letters are not as rare as you might think, so it must be a lucrative business for somebody.
I have certainly not been visiting car showrooms or pricing new Lamborghinis, nor have I been anticipating the purchase of a spacious villa on a Hawaiian island due to this “windfall.”
But on a serious note, many scams are far more sophisticated than the one I expose above and have undoubtedly tricked people out of a great deal of money, sometimes bleeding them of their life savings.
Remember- if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!