Complaint Review: Bank Of Africa Tome Logo - Lome Nationwide

Beware of this scam. I have once again been scammed. I was contacted by a person, who convinced me that a cerain gentleman and his famile crashed in an airplane over Nantucket. He left 18.5 million dollars and this was in November 1999. He originally gave me a site to investigate whether he was on the plane. I checked it out, however it was a link discontinued. I thought, well it is since 1999, no problem.

This person convinced me he works for the bank for the last 17 years, and they have not been able to find Next of Kin. In that light, he could give me the information needed to successfully pass myself off to the bank as Next of Kin. He specified that once I was able to answer the questions the bank would eventually ask, there would be a division of the account. It would be 70% for him, 25% for me, and 5% for business expenses. During this time of trading daily emails back and forth, he kept on mentioning something I found inexplicably strange, or at least his choice of words I found strange. He kept on mentioning, "Champion this project". I read a scam, International Bank Of Africa Togo Scam

From: Caroline

Category: Internet Scams

Date: 03 Aug 2003

Time: 16:43:23

Remote Name: 66.119.33.135

Comments

Received email "FROM GEORGE ANANI, AN ACCOUNTANT INTHE BILL AND EXCHANGE OF THE FORGEIGN REMITTANCE DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERNATIONAL BANK OF AFRICA ........" Different name...same scam!- Have actually talked to this guy on the phone (made the mistake of giving out my home number) he sounds professional.. but don't believe a word of it! By the way I can't call him back... +..+228-944-42-83 Now he's asking for a copy of my passport and my UK bank details!

BEWARE!! - Caroline (Full text of original message below) ATTN: Caroline I AM AN ACCOUNTANT IN THE BILL AND EXCHANGE OF THE FOREIGN REMITTANCE DEPARTMENT OF INTERNATIONAL BANK OF AFRICA.(I.B.A) I am writing you, following the impressive information about your profile through the web site. Therefore, I believed that you shall posess the capability and reliability to champion this opportunity with me. In my department, we discovered an abandoned sum of 14 million US dollars (Fourteen million US dollars), in an account that belongs to one of our foreign customers Mr. Martin Greenberg, who died in October 31,1999 in an EgyptAir Flight 990, which crashed into the Atlantic Ocean.

Since we got the urgly information about his death, we have been expecting his next of Kin to come over and claim his money because we can not release it unless somebody applies for it as next of Kin or relation to the deceased as indicated in our banking and financial policies but unfortunately we learnt that his supposed next of kin or relation died along side with him in the accident leaving no body behind to claim the money.

It is therefore upon this discovery that I and a partner in my department now decided to make this business proposal to you and release the money to you as the next of kin or relation to the deceased for safety and subsequent disbursement since nobody is coming for it and we don't want this money to go into the Bank treasury as unclaimed bills. The Banking law and guideline here stipulates that if such money remained unclaimed after five years, the money will be transferred into the Bank treasury as unclaimed fund.

The request for a foreigner as next of kin in this business is occasioned by the fact that the customer was a foreigner and an indigene cannot stand as next of kin to the deceased family. We agreed that 20% of this money will be for you as foreign partner, in respect to the provision of a foreign account, 5% will be set aside for expenses incurred during this transaction and 75 % would be for me and my colleagues.

Thereafter, I and my colleagues will visit your country for disbursement according to the percentages indicated. To enable the immediate transfer of this fund to you as arranged above, you must apply first to the Bank as the relation or next of kin to the deceased indicating your private telephone and fax numbers for easy and effective communication and location where the money will be remitted.

Upon receipt of your reply, I will send to you by fax or e-mail the text of the application. I will not fail to bring to your notice that this transaction is hitch free and that you should not entertain any atom of fear as all required arrangements have been made for the transfer. You should contact me on my E-MAIL or alternative email address [email protected] as soon as you receive this letter. I decided to contact you as we have products of interest in your part of the world where we can invest our own percentage to avoid peoples awareness as we are civil servants. With your acceptance and cooperation, we can conclude this operation within ten working days. Please keep this very confidential. May God be with you. Yours faithfully, Mr.G. Anani

I found this email almost exactly what this person had been communicting with me about, even the use of that strange choice of words, "Champion this project". I was presented with certificate's of Deposit, certiciate's of Award. I talked this person several times in Africa. The certificates led me to believe that is was for real, I was about to be rich, 18.5 mil, and 4.8mil would be mine. I was convinced to send $250.00 to retain an attorney in Togo. I thought Ok. After a week of deliveration, which I thought strange, deliverate what, what is there to deliverate? On the fateful day I was told, everything was set for the transfer of the 19.5 mil, escept you have to send $2,300.00 to reactivate this account as it had been inactive for over a year.

Reluctantly I have resigned myself to that this has been a very cleverly designed scam. BEWARE, THIS IS A GOOD ONE

Bill

Mead, Washington
U.S.A.