Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Canada

Re: Am I being scammed

Yes, I believe you are the focus of a very common scam. When a person dies without a will or without a living beneficiary, his/her next of kin are actually identified. Entitlement does not depend on your family name but by proveable relationship to the deceased in priority to anyone else. You may be a member of a class of all the same relationship. Otherwise statutory law specifies that the estate reverts to the crown as the ultimate heir. It is very rare that this happens. It is not legally possible to just pick a person out of the blue as an heir unless someone wants you to POSE as an heir (which is fraud) and then to take a piece of the proceeds (which is conspiracy to defraud). As you can see both actions are criminal in nature.