Personal Finance & Money Asked by Veronica Blanco on February 19, 2021
A lady contacted me by a name of Pierrette Mala said she is about to die and is an orphan and has no family to leave her money wth and has been lead by faith that im a good person to leave this money with.
She said she has throat cancer and is a widow and just doesn’t feel leaving money to organizations will do any good since people tend to steal. To make this story short she said she feels im a good person and is following her heart and wants to send me 60.000 euros and to contact her notary for the details in sending me this donation. I contacted that notary email [email removed] and he said there are two forms they will have to complete 1. authorization form 2. donation form. The lady stated she is originally from France but lives in Canada. What seems weird to me is her notary has a domain of gmail.com instead of having a business domain. also this whole thing is weird.
Is this a scam?
Yes, this is a scam. The reason it seems weird to you is that it is weird. A real person wanting to give money away will find someone that they know in real life, not a stranger that they came across searching online.
In the future, you should probably treat unsolicited messages that you receive with more suspicion.
Answered by Ben Miller - Remember Monica on February 19, 2021
This seems like a pretty classic Nigerian scam. If you continue with this, they'll likely give some reason that you need to give them a "small" amount of money to facilitate the transaction. (They'll likely continue to get as many of these "small" payments from you as possible as long as you continue to go along with the scam, or simply disappear with the money once you pay them).
Answered by EJoshuaS - Reinstate Monica on February 19, 2021
Google some facts or sentences from that information, phone numbers, email of the lady, etc. first or read something about scams, hoaxs, etc. few examples: https://www.scamwatch.gov.au/types-of-scams/unexpected-money/inheritance-scams https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance-fee_scam
You made one mistake yet - you shouldn't reply to strangers email, in case I would trust such a fairy tail any bit, I will first check basic things like how that lady found me, what she know about me and from where, if contacts are real - official registers, notary chambre, etc.
For example neighbour showed me real paper "Nigerian letter" and except terrible English found there was no ZIP, but regional part of landline phone number - they found his address in phone directory.
And most of similar scams build on greediness, so be careful, when sniffing interesting money ;-) Most probably it smells by scam.
Answered by Tom on February 19, 2021
It is 100% a scam.
You pointed out in your question
" What seems weird to me is her notary has a domain of gmail.com instead of having a business domain. also this whole thing is weird. "
When a person is a notary their email address domain is unimportant. You contact them by phone or email, and then you meet in person with them. They need to see you, and your government issued ID, and then they need to watch you sign the forms, and then they emboss their stamp on that important document they signed.
That embossed seal they get from a government source, that tells the party of the transaction who can't watch you sign that the person that signed it was who they say they are.
A notary that you only interact with over the internet isn't a notary. They want their victim to think it must be true, because there was a notary involved.
Answered by mhoran_psprep on February 19, 2021
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