Anatomy of a Scam - Part II

This is part 2 of a feature I am writing about called "Anatomy of a Scam". You can find part 1 here.

Update: Yesterday Mr Dick found some time to send me (Carl Meyer) a reply.. here it is:

Dear Carl Meyer

This is to acknowledge the receipt of your mail with thanks.The last name is meyer and funds is in united states dollars in the bank

My late clients until his death was an oil contractor but unfortunately died inter estate i.e without a will. From my investigation, there is no known relative of my late client.

All I need now is your cooperation to file in your name as the next of kin because in the record there is no known successor to this deposit of ($18 million Dollars) the deceased who died without a will and based on the situation at hand due to time constraint, if this fund is not claimed the government will seize this fund.

All documents relating to this transaction will be given to you as we progress.
I want this done so that I can use a good part of my share for helping the poor and the needy and for charity works. You shall receive 45% of the total funds for your assistance.

However, I must assure you that this transaction is safe and all modalities is in place to ensure that this is done in a legitimate way without a single breach of law. Based on your maximum cooperation, we will finalise this transaction within ten working days.

I shall require your FULL NAME , CONTACT ADDRESS and PHONE NUMBER to enble file for the inheritance and start the process of claim in this regard.

Again I guarantee that all is under control and you have nothing to worry about, Just grant to me your full cooperation and keep this transaction close at heart.
.
Barr Van Dick
Attorney

Lets take a look at this in detail:

Dear Carl Meyer (that's me)

This is to acknowledge the receipt of your mail with thanks.(Your Welcome! So polite) The last name is meyer (No shit?) and funds is in united states dollars in the bank (Answers my two questions from the last mail, not very good english though)

My late clients until his death was an oil contractor but unfortunately died inter estate i.e without a will. From my investigation, there is no known relative of my late client. (Which is funny cause I purposely chose a very common name which when googled, produces over 40,000 hits)

All I need now is your cooperation to file in your name as the next of kin because in the record there is no known successor to this deposit of $18 million Dollars (That is a lot of money, scam directive of "Dazzle") the deceased who died without a will and based on the situation at hand due to time constraint, if this fund is not claimed the government will seize this fund. (Here is the classic scam directive of HURRY HURRY)

All documents relating to this transaction will be given to you as we progress.
I want this done so that I can use a good part of my share for helping the poor and the needy and for charity works. (scam directive: sympathy. Builds trust, awww must be a nice guy!) You shall receive 45% of the total funds for your assistance. (ok so 8 million.. not bad. Besides, a "good part" of the rest is going to the poor and needy)

However, I must assure you that this transaction is safe (Scam directive: Peace of Mind) and all modalities is (Dude has a problem with the word "are") in place to ensure that this is done in a legitimate way without a single breach of law. Based on your maximum cooperation, we will finalise this transaction within ten working days. (That's not bad, all this in 10 days? Better Hurry! Glad it's Safe.. WOW all that money!! Such a nice guy)

I shall require your FULL NAME , CONTACT ADDRESS and PHONE NUMBER to enble file for the inheritance and start the process of claim in this regard. (Yea, I might be able to comply with this)

Again I guarantee that all is under control and you have nothing to worry about, Just grant to me your full cooperation and keep this transaction close at heart. (As in, don't tell anyone? Ok... all those blog readers, please keep this to yourself.)
.
Barr Van Dick
Attorney


Here is my reply:

Barr Van Dick,

Thank you for your reply. I am excited about the possible outcome of this transaction as you could probably imagine!

Here is my Information:

Carl Meyer
(False contact information provided but removed from this post)

I look forward to hearing from you further!

Carl M
-------------------------------

It is quite possible that the scam will end at this point as I chose not to provide real contact information. I did provide a real world address and phone number which is easily google-able and will match with the local I chose (Seattle WA) but if Van DICK decides to make a phone call as his next phase, it will be over. Let's wait and see what happens.

CM. er.. AS.