Spanish Lawyers (Abogados) Inheritance scam
I received a blank envelope in the mail that was postmarked in Portugal and had no return address on the outside. Inside was a paper with the name Antonio Ignacio Romero. The "law firm" name is A. I. Romero & Asociado, at Claudio Coello, 14,3" F 28001 Madrid, Spain.
The top of the letter is in all caps and reads:
PRINCIPAL PARTNERS:
ABOGADO DAVID MENDOZA VALENZUELA Telephone: (34) 911 011 046
ABOGADO JUAN ZAMORA Mobile: (34) 634 079 850
ABOGADO ROSE I. HERNANDEZ Fax: (34) 911 011 047
Email: antonio@amgabogado.com
NOTICE OF BEQUEST
On behalf of the Trustees and Executor of the estate of Late Engr. David Granero, I Antonio Ignacio Romero once again try to notify you as my earlier letter returned undelivered. I hereby attempt to reach you again by this same address on the WILL.
I wish to notify you that Late Engr. David Granero made you a beneficiary to his WILL. He left the sum of Twnety two million five hundred thousand United States Dollars ($22,500,000.ooUSD) to you in the codicil and last testament to his WILL.
This may sound strange and unbelievable to you as non of the family members seem to know you, but it is real and true. Being a widely traveled man, he must have been in contact with you in the past or simply you were recommended to his by on eof his numberous friends abroad who wished you good.
Engr. David Granero until his death was a member of this European Federation of Engineering Consultance Associations. He had a very good heart and was a philathropist. His great philanthropy earned him numerous awards during his life time.
Late Engr. David Granero died on the 13th day of November 2010, at the age of 80 years, and his WILL is now ready for execution. According to him this money is to support humanitarian activities and to help the poor and the needy in our society.
Please if I reach you this time as I am hopeful, endeavor to get back to me as soon as possible to enable me conclude my job.
I hope to hear from you in no distant time through the email address, fax or phone number above.
Aside from the poor grammar, the letterhead was copied and had a cheap looking picture of scales and was not on bonded paper. I gave them my phone number and received a call the next day requesting I check my email. The person on the phone did NOT sound spanish, it was a gruff voice with a muddy accent( my guess is a Nigerian trying to do a spanish accent).
After a couple weeks of email and a couple more calls from what sounded like different people claiming to be Antonio telling me to check my email for more info they finally got to the scam. The lawyer gives you the name and number of a banker who will handle the release of funds. After talking to him I found that he sounded just like the other guys who called, gruff voice with a mixed up accent. They try to make you think they have a lot of money in a spanish bank for you and in my case they asked me to fill out an account form to open an account at that spanish bank. Of course the bank never heard of this person who claimed to be Sergio Alvarez. Of course they would open the account which needs to have 3,480 euros for a small account and up to 5,000+ euro for the deluxe account. The bank they used was Banco Caixa Penedes (which does exist) and he even had an email address that looked official; Sergio@caixapenedes-es.com (of course the actual bank email is just one letter off with and address of name@caixapenedes-esp.com). If you look up the webhost for these clowns they are hosted in LosAngeles and so was the caixapenedes-es.com site.
PLEASE DONT SEND THEM YOUR INFO. DO NOT SEND THEM YOUR MONEY, IT'S A SCAM, A FRAUD. THESE ARE CRIMINALS TRYING TO STEAL FROM YOU!!
And there it is. They have an account there at the bank that they expect you to fund and they take the money and run.
The scammers now Send Txt messages!!!!
I got a txt message this morning that i got so much money and bla bla. It was clearly a scam. So just a heads up they are sending txt again!!! Plus the use you number or something to fin your last name. I google the phone number and it's registered in Los Angeles. hopefully someone can catch these bastards !!!!!
This is the content of the letter I received
I got a very similar letter via mail. I try add all the content here, so that whoever gets a letter like this will easily find a reference.
MIGUEL ZAMORA . SL Y SOCIO
CARRER DE BALMES, 198 - 211, 08006 BARCELONA, ESPANA
Dear xxxxx xxxxxx
Firstly, I must solicit your confidence in this transaction; this is by virtue of its nature as being utterly confidential and top secret. Though I know that a transaction of this magnitude will make any one apprehensive and worried, but I am assuring you that all will be well at the end of the day.
Let me start by first introducing myself properly to you. It may surpris you receiving this letter from me, since there was no previous correspondence between us. My name is Migel Zamora.
(Abogados Espana) personal Attorney to late Mr. Emmanuel Barbera
My purpose of contacting you is for you to help secure the funds left behind by my late client, to avoid it being confiscated or declared serviceable by the Bank Where this fund valued $12,500,000.00 (Twelve Million Five hundred thousand US dollars) deposited by my client before his death.
This bank has issued me a noice to contact the next of kin or the account will be declared serviceable and the fund diverted to the bank treasury. So far all my efforts to get hold of someone related to this man has proved abortive. Hence, I have contacted you. I am actually asking for your consent to present you to the Bank as the Next of kin/beneficiary of my late client's fund, since you have the same last name, so that the proceeds of this account can be paid to your account.
All the legal documentations to back up your claim as my client's Next of kin I shall provide them. All I require is your honest cooperation to enable us achieve this transaction.
I wish to point out that I want 10% of this money to be shared among the charity organizations, while the remaining 90% is shared equally between us. This proposition is entirely 100% risk free. I will use my position as the client's attorney to guarantee the successful execution of this transaction. If you are interested, please contact me via
Tel: +34-9317-61006 / Fax +34 - 93-54-574 - 49 Or e-mail:
info@bccabogado.com / abogado0es@gmail.com
http://www.bccabogado.com
Upon your response, I shall then provide you with more details and relevant documents that will helpyou understand this transaction well.
The intended transaction will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that will protect you from any infraction of the law.
However, if this business proposition offends your moral ethics, do accept my sincere apology.
If on the contrary you wish to achieve this goal with me, kindly get back to me with your interest for further explanation.
Best Regards
Mr. Miguel Zamora
(ABOGADOS ESPANA)