I received a letter (not e-mail) claiming that a "late Mr Davies (surname)" in Spain had died, after leaving US $12,500,000 to us. (We live in Australia). The letter was addressed to my mum, hence it had her name and surname, and the apparent man who had died had the same surname as us.

The letter is as follows:

Dear (mum's name),

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 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 surprise you receiving this letter from me, since there was no previous correspondence between us. My name is Bruno W Schenk. Esq. a personal Attorney to Late Mr. Davies (surname)

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 notice 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 a 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 provided them. All I require is your honest cooperation to enable us achieve this transaction.

I wish to point out that I want 20% of this money to be shared amony charity Organizations, while the remaining 80% 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/fax/email). Upon your response, I shall then provide you with more details and relevant documents that will help you 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. Bruno W. Schenk Esq.

I've deliberately left the grammatical errors in the letter and carelfully re-typed it (so hopefullly I haven't made any typos!) as well as our surname, and did not include his contact details.

We were unsure as to whether this was a scam or not, so we replied via email and the next day we received not one, but five emails! There were also attachments including the ID of "Bruno Schenk" and a "NEST OF KIN APPLICATION TO BANK[1]". The "NEST OF KIN APPLICATION TO BANK[1]" is as follows:

THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR,
OFFICE OF THE DIRECTOR,
LEGAL/DOCUMENTARY CREDIT DEPT.
CENTRAL BANK AND FINANCIAL SERVICES
MADRID ESPAÑA.
TEL: +34-91-414-3167 EXT. 2 / FAX: +34-911-414-333

SIR,

SUB: APPLICATION AS NEXT-OF-KIN DRAWING FROM THE ACCOUNT OF LATE MR. ---------------------WITH YOUR BANK VALUED AT
US $12, 500,000.00

I AM THE NEXT-OF-KIN FOLLOWING TO LATE MR. --------------- WHO DIED IN AN AUTOMOBILE CRASH ALONG WITH HIS ENTIRE FAMILY. FOLLOWING THE DEPOSIT/LODGEMENT HOLDEN IN THE DOMICILIARY ACCOUNT OF YOUR LATE CUSTOMER, MR. -----------------------, and BILL NO: ECBPLC/1/7289/94. AND PAYMENT FILE NO: ES/5897/PED/ZPG/94

I HAVE REALIZED THE MENTIONED BILL ACCORDING TO THE DEED OF WILL ALREADY INTERPRETED FOR AND IN MY FAVOUR BY YOUR ACCOUNTING AND AUDITING DEPARTMENT, AND AS AT THE DATE OF THIS LETTER, I HAVE NOT RECEIVED ANY PAYMENT FROM YOUR BANK YET AS THE NEXT-OF-KIN TO THE DECEASED.

I TRUST THAT YOU WILL UNDERSTAND THAT UNDER THIS CIRCUMSTANCE, YOU WILL BEGIN TO PROCESS THE TRANSFER OF
US $12, 500,000.00 TO AN ACCOUNT WHICH I SHALL PROVIDE WHEN REQUIRED

I AM PREPARED AND READY TO SUBMIT ANY DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE (S) UPON DEMAND AND ALSO I WILL BE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR ALL OBLIGATIONS THERETO CONCERNING THE TRANSFER OF THE
US $12, 500,000.00 TO MY BANK ACCOUNT.

KINDLY NOTE THE ABOVE INFORMATION AND CHECK YOUR RECORDS ACCORDINGLY IN MY FAVOUR. PLEASE, SWIFT WIRE THE PRINCIPAL AMOUNT OF THE FACE VALUE (100%) PLUS THE PERCENTAGE OF INTEREST ACCRUED.



YOURS FAITHFULLY,


YOUR FULL NAME AND SIGNATURE WITH STAMP IF POSSIBLE.
TEL / FAX / E-MAIL IF ANY

Note that I did NOT edit this document, and it was so fishy that it all but confirmed the suspicions I had about this being a scam.

Thanks for all help received in advance.