Dear Bailey,
I am Mr.Benny Obaseki, the Manager funds release with Standard Trust Bank (plc), I am the accountant in charge of Mr.Anthony Bailey's account a National of your country, who used to work with a Multi-National oil Firm in Nigeria. Here in after shall be referred to as my client On April 21, 2000, my client, his wife, and their three children were involved in a car accident along Sagamu express way. All occupants of the vehicle unfortunately lost their lives. Since then I have made several inquiries to your embassy to locate any of my clients extended Relatives, this has also proved unsuccessful.
After these several unsuccessful attempts, I decided to trace his last name over the Internet, to locate any member of his family hence I contacted you. I have contacted you to assist in repatriating the money and property left behind by my client before they Get confiscated or declared unserviceable by the bank where this huge deposits were lodged, particularly the Standard Trust Bank (plc) where the deceased had an account valued at about ($12 million u s dollars) has Issued me a notice to provide the next of kin or have the account confiscated within the next ten official working days.
Since I have been unsuccessful in locating the relatives for over 2 years now I seek your consent to present you as the next of kin of the deceased since you have the same last name so that the proceeds of this account valued at ($12 million u s dollars) can be paid to you and then you and me Can share the money.
60% to me and 40% to you . All I require is your honest cooperation to enable us see this deal through.I guarantee that this will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that will protect you from any breach of the law. Please get in touch with me by my email.
Best regards,
Benny Obaseki.
Wow. I wonder how many idiots actually buy into this obvious fraud. Nevertheless, I think I'm going to play along for a bit, see how long it takes him to realize that I'm interested in nothing more than mocking him. So here's the email I sent back. I will hopefully be able to follow this up next week with his return reply, unless he's unfortunately quick-witted and catches on to my sarcasm after just the first round. My last name, in case you were wondering, isn't even Bailey.
Dear Mr. Obaseki,
Thank you so much for contacting me in regards to my deceased relative and his unclaimed fortune. I am quite impressed with your investigative skills, to have tracked me down to this anonymous email account that I had opened no more than four months ago, especially considering how you were going off of nothing more than a last name that has no attachment to this address whatsoever. Your writing skills seem to lack the same level of proficiency however, as I would expect something a little more eloquent from someone holding the title of bank manager, but perhaps this could be attributed to English being a second language for you. I took the liberty of visiting the website for Standard Trust Bank to learn a little more about your company and verify that it was a legitimate organization. There was a notice on the site that read as follows: "It has come to our notice that some individuals have been impersonating Standard Trust Bank Plc and officials of the bank and making business proposals to the public. This is to advise the public especially our customers and prospective customers to exercise extreme caution in responding to all suspicious business proposals from these sources..." I'm sure this is just a precautionary statement though, and that your proposal is certainly genuine. So please tell me, what must I do in order to secure this inheritance? I eagerly await your reply.
Cordially,
TribbleHunter Bailey