Hi Barbara,
Does anybody know anything about a Wilson Benjamin, who says he is a
solicitor for the estate of a Robert Burk, who, along with his wife and
daughter
lost their lives on 9/11. It sounds like he lives in Toga or Africa.
Sounds like a scam to me. Says he has 21 days to find heirs or the State
claims
the millions of this family.
Edith
STOP. DON'T GO THERE. That's a scam all right Edith; in time you'll see they come a dime a dozen. Another word for such heartfelt solicitations is SPAM.
Do Not Pass Go & Do Not Collect $200, even for Robert Burk (alias 9/11 victim)! If you want to help the poor folks in Toga, send your donations to a reputable charity organization, and never consumate such transactions via e mail proffers.
You heard it here first. Jb
PS. Technically this is actually known as Phishing (or a variant thereof), a particularly odious/devious form of SPAM. The ringleaders of such "enterprises" often target e mail addresses that inadvertently provide hints for additional lures or "hooks" (e.g. "Burk" in your e mail user name). Then it is simply a matter of running the pre-fabbed (pre-fibbed) scam adding the appropriate names into the text message. Trust me, you'll be one of many Burk-related targets asked to get in on the deal. The e mail addies they acquire en masse are purchased from database vendors, or sometimes the black market. Sometimes they send out such sucker punches without even honing-in on their intended targets (true mass e mailings). You may get something similar at some point for a Mr. Smith or Jones!
Fortunately you were smart enough to be skeptical, but many aren't. For the benefit of anyone still in the black on these kinds of practices: from Webopedia ~
Phishing (fish�ing) (n.) The act of sending an e-mail to a user falsely claiming to be an established legitimate enterprise in an attempt to scam the user into surrendering private information that will be used for identity theft. The e-mail directs the user to visit a Web site where they are asked to update personal information, such as passwords and credit card, social security, and bank account numbers, that the legitimate organization already has. The Web site, however, is bogus and set up only to steal the user�s information.
Phishing, also referred to as brand spoofing or carding, is a variation on �fishing,� the idea being that bait is thrown out with the hopes that while most will ignore the bait, some will be tempted into biting.
Jb
Edith,
I Heartily agree with John's assessment! It sounds exactly like the infamous
"Nigerian Scam" of which I've received about 100 variations!
Don Roddy
----- Message from johnbrene@hotmail.com ---------
Soon you'll be getting 20 scams like this every day. They prey on our greed and our wishful thinking.
DO NOT OPEN THEM. They are just collecting email addresses for their "sucker lists" to send you more junk.
And they may offer a scam to get some money FROM you.
There is no big estate and there is no free lunch, Edith.
We all know better but our wishful thinking eggs us on, doesn't it?
Do no open emails from ANYONE you do not know personally or a mailing list or newsletter you have subscribed to.
If you are to inherit anything you will get a LETTER,
not an email. Attorneys and banks DO NOT EMAIL.
EVER.
Maureen
Dear Edith,
I got scam email talking about millions of dollars regarding an Andreas Schranner that was victim of an
an airline crash.
Specifically one can search google about "Concorde Crash" which happend 31 July 2000.
The mail includes a reply email addy..and cites news articles..
There are actually BBC news articles..
The mail looks legit..but you have to ask yourself...
Why would ANYONE email a perfect stranger with an offer of sharing part of several million dollars?
Old saying..."There are no free lunches" is wise saying.
I forward weird stuff like this to homeland security..
Barbie-Lew
Soon you'll be getting 20 scams like this every day.
They prey on our greed and our wishful thinking.
DO NOT OPEN THEM. They are just collecting email
addresses for their "sucker lists" to send you more junk.
And they may offer a scam to get some money FROM you.
There is no big estate and there is no free lunch, Edith.
We all know better but our wishful thinking eggs us on, doesn't it?
Do no open emails from ANYONE you do not know personally
or a mailing list or newsletter you have subscribed to.
If you are to inherit anything you will get a LETTER,
not an email. Attorneys and banks DO NOT EMAIL.
EVER.
Maureen
We all know that these conversations are all off-topic
and don't belong in the Archive on the Hanover list.
It has been at least a week, I think, and several rounds.
Can we take the topic of "scammers" private now, and
restrict ourselves to genealogy once again, please?
Maureen