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Bankrate keeps an eye out for
the ways con artists are trying to pick your pockets. The latest: a Nigerian scam
that claims to have access to the money of Holocaust victims.
You may have been courted before by the Nigerian
scam, also known as the 419 scam (named after the section of the law pertaining
to it). It comes in e-mail or letter form and tells you of a huge amount of money
hidden overseas that the writer of the letter wants to put in your bank account.
In return, he promises you a big cut of the cash. What you
may not know is that this scam comes in many different forms. Con artists are
continually updating the scam in an attempt to change it enough so that people
won't recognize it. While the original version of this bogus letter claims to
have access to a bank account in Nigeria, Bankrate recently received a version
of the scam that claims to be from Switzerland. Rather than money that belonged
to warlords, this person claims to have access to funds that belonged to victims
of the Holocaust who are now deceased and left no wills. Long
story short: Any checks you receive from this person will be fake. The con will
ask you to keep part of the money and send him the difference. Shortly after you
send him the difference by mail or wire, his check will bounce, and you will owe
the total amount to your bank. Warning: Sometimes people are told by their banks
that the check has cleared, so they go ahead and wire the difference to the scammer.
But don't be too sure: The scammers sometimes forge a cashier's check, which fools
the bank into prematurely reporting the check as "cleared." Once the
forgery is discovered, the bank will try to hold you liable. You
should not answer these e-mails or click on the links they contain. The Federal
Trade Commission has warned that by clicking on links, you may unknowingly download
spyware
onto your computer. Here's how one version of the Holocaust
scam e-mail, entitled "THE GAIN OF WORLD WAR II," reads:
Hello,
My name is Mr. Ronald Lauder, a member of Independent
Committee of Eminent Persons (ICEP), Switzerland. ICEP is charged with the responsibility
of finding bank accounts in Switzerland belonging to non-Swiss indigenes [sic],
which have remained dormant since World War II. It may interest you to know that
in July of 1997, the Swiss Banker's Association published a list of dormant accounts
originally opened by non-Swiss citizens. These accounts had been dormant since
the end of World War II (May 9, 1945). Most belonged to Holocaust victims. The
continuing efforts of the Independent Committee of Eminent Persons (ICEP) have
since resulted in the discovery of additional dormant accounts -- 54,000 in December
1999. The published lists contain all types of dormant
accounts, including interest-bearing savings accounts, securities accounts, safe-deposit
boxes, custody accounts, and non-interest-bearing transaction accounts. Numbered
accounts are also included. Interest is paid on accounts that were interest bearing
when established. The Claims Resolution Tribunal (CRT)
handles processing of all claims on accounts due non-Swiss citizens. I discovered
a dormant account of ORDNER ADELE with a credit balance of 35,000,000 US dollar
plus accumulated interest. The beneficiary was murdered during the holocaust era,
leaving no WILL and no possible records for trace of heirs. The Claims Resolution
Tribunal has been mandated to report all unclaimed funds for permanent closure
of accounts and transfer of existing credit balance into the treasury of Switzerland
government as provided by the law for management of assets of deceased beneficiaries
who died interstate (living no wills) [sic]. | 
