Unexpected inheritance or winnings
You receive a sudden email that says you are the inheritor of a wealthy foreign individual, or that you have somehow won a Spanish lottery, etc.
Description of the fraud
You receive an email announcing that you are the inheritor to the fortune of a recently deceased individual from another country, or that you have just won a large lottery pot. The email asks you to set up a bank account to receive your inheritance or winnings. You are told that if you start this process of opening a new account, you will receive a certain percentage of the inheritance or winnings as compensation for your help. Finally, after the account is open, you are again asked to put down advanced payments for taxes (for legal reasons) or to pay other fees. After doing so, you receive no more news of your supposed inheritance or winnings. This was a matter of fraud.
How to avoid this fraud?
- Be wary of all documents the sender provides as evidence of their sincerity
- Never respond to or even send an acknowledgement of receipt to these emails
- Systematically delete all undesired messages
- Put them all in the Spam folder of your email
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