Ok, this is kind of a strange one to tackle so I have decided to seek some external advice and opinions from here on ATS.

A close friend of mine in the UK recieved an email today, from the director of an energy company located in the united states, asking for help re-profiling several million pounds through her bank account.

A percentage of these funds will be allocated for taxation and a disclosed percentage will be paid to my friend as compensation for the transaction participation, whilst the remaining majority of the funds will be recieved back by the company (no time period disclosed).

This endeavor is explained to have minimal risk factor on her part provided that it is treated with the utmost discretion (obviously this is why I am addressing your opinions on her behalf).

My first reaction was that it would seem to be some sort of scam or entrapment of sorts.

I would like to recieve some feedback with relative constructiveness or ideas as to why a multi million pound organisation would aproach her with this seemingly unavoidable oportunity.

I would also like to hear from anyone else who has been offered a similar oportunity via email.

hiya.

Yeah I get these mails from time to time. It's a well known scam.

The idea is that you have to set up a bank account for the money to transfer. but....

and it is a BIG but, you have to put up some money first before you receive any funds.

Once you put money into it you are lost.

The y disappear with your money and never hear from them again.

Tell your friend to report the mail to their internet provider who will take the appropriate action to block the domain it came form.

Hope that helps,

All the best,

NeoN HaZe.

via email? from someone she doesn't know?
stay the hell away.
People familiar with the internet know there are NO genuine emails like these.
The only difference with this one is that it's not from nigeria
Don't do it.
Research abit and you'll find these emails are quite common, in the hopes of finding someone like her that's actually considering it.

If someone is offering to give you money, and 'all' you need to do is give them some money first, or accept a check from them and give them the overage, or give them your bank account number so they can 'directly deposit' the money...

its a scam. Don't respond to the email. Don't even open an email from someone you don't know or with a title like that. Just delete it or mark it as 'spam'.

You can't be serious. Anyone who has an e-mail account (particularly one of the 'free' web-ad accounts) gets these bogus "offers" all the time. Most spam filters catch them, but the perpetrators are getting more clever - trying to circumvent security measures as they become available.

If all else fails, TRY COMMON SENSE!! NOBODY is going to send you, a stranger, millions of dollars. The nigerian scam, highlighted above is the most common, but are now replicated by all sorts of versions from different countries, royalty, blah, blah, blah.

Geez - gimme a break already...

BTW: I have some nice swampland in Antarctica you may be intereted in. Send me a U2U so I can let you know where to send your chack...

The scary thing is, these scams, they are succesful, thats why they are still around, they actually work. People actually thing 'wow, a rich american died in nigeria, and there is no one to transfer his money too, and I can have the money, great!"

They like....deserve it almost. Its like having a big 'haxor klown' pop up on a webpage and it says to you 'do you wanna be tricked, or have a treat, and then you say 'oh, I'll take trick please'.

You know thats pretty much the sort of post's I was expecting in reply, and pretty much what I had sugested to her earlier.

Thanks for your help guys, better to be safe than sorry eh?

I receive those same proposals constantly, they are ALL a scam.

This reminds me of a scam that was on Ebay a while ago. The guy said he was willing to give away his "vast" fortune and belongings to whoever bid the highest, as well as give gifts to anyone who bids even those who don't win (this is to make the bid price go up).

What had me laughing is that the person had a picture of a mansion with an image of Colonel Sanders layered ontop of it, with a Lamborgini in the background. He said it was him, and that he was very old and very wealthy. He also included pictures of pirate's treasure chests, bags of diamons and gems, and stacks of money. Obviously, the guy's auction was closed.

To this day, I have never seen a more ridiculous scam on the net.

DJMesiah that is bizzare!!
Surely no one was actualy bidding on this auction?

There were tons of people bidding, and they were actual bids, considering the people had 40-300 positive feedback. I don't remember what the exact highest bid had been, but I do remember it reached well over a thousand. I checked the guy's feedback score (the scammer's) and it about the "mystery envelopes" he sold.

People would give him a positive feedback, because he would include $0.01-0.25 more in the package than what the person won the item for.

It's also criminal organisations getting people to launder their money for them too.
And it's quite common.
You do make money from it (apparently). Cos some actually send you checks so the cash is there first.

Remember though- ignorance is no defence, and you will still go to prison if caught.

Never considered that you could launder money that way, but it's obvious when you think about it.

I wonder if there are global figures anywhere for how much people get robbed of each year, im going to have a look.