Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Nigeria
claiming inheritance to someone of same last name
hi,
i have a friend who received an e-mail from an attorney in nigeria whose client (who is american) and family died in a car accident in 1999. he has huge sum of money in his bank account and his laywer has tried unsuccessfully for 3 years to find a next of kin. The money will be confiscated by the government if no next of kin is found soon. he has contacted my friend, who has the same last name as the dead man, to act as next of kin and share the money with the attorney. i was wondering if such action is legal. the lawyer is asking for 60% of the money. my friend does not know whether to trust the man and go on with the claim. the attorney has sent copies of the death certificate, certificate of deposit at the bank, and his passport to my friend. the question i have is, is there any legal risk for my friend if he proceeds with this, esp. since he isnt of any relation to the man? and also, if after this deal goes through, and the money is divided, and a real next of kin with claim comes out, would it be my friend's obligation to give the money--as well as the 60% given to the attorney, meaning he would have to pay 100% of the money even tho he received 40%--to the next of kin?
6 Answers from Attorneys
Re: claiming inheritance to someone of same last name
from the facts given, your friend's situation sounds like a well known "nigerian scam" in which the US federal government is warning persons of participating in. you may want to go onto an online search engine and look up "nigerian scams" and see if such scams significantly mirror the correspondence between this nigerian "attorney" and your friend. definitely proceed with caution in this "invitation" as it most likely is not on the level. if you would like further assistance in this matter, feel free to email us directly.
Re: claiming inheritance to someone of same last name
I'll add my two cents in case the previous replies failed to convince you. The next step of the scammer is to get your friend's financial information and drain his/her bank account(s).
Re: claiming inheritance to someone of same last name
This is a scam. Kindly disregard this correspondence. It is actually called "419" scam and millions of people have lost their money to this scam. PLEASE DISREGARD
Re: claiming inheritance to someone of same last name
I have a friend, what you still in junior high school??? Why don't you really say somebody approached you as they didn't it's a question that seems very rare. Now let's look at this with some reasonability, same last name, that's all. You didn't say "my friend" was his brother, uncle, father, or even his sister or her mother. Sssssoooooo, I would imagine he used no blood relation whatsoever. And what you want is some lawyer to tell you that this is okay, yes take a bite of the poison apple and you will not die, so you can go ahead and get money which is not rightly yours. Well, look outside and see the sky at 10 AM in the morning. If it's totally black outside in there is no lights whatsoever Dan and you might be okay. Now no, no, no. What part of fraud don't you understand. What part of deceit don't you understand. What part of lying don't you understand. Can something happened to "your friend". Nothing short of drawing and quartering. If you wish to go ahead do so at your own risk, and you're standing on the precipice of the Grand Canyon. Now, where was the parachute. And all you get his 40 percent??????
Re: claiming inheritance to someone of same last name
Have you ever heard the old saying "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably isn't!"
This is a big scam that has been going on for years. I still get these emails. Your best bet is to forward the email to the justice department of the federal government.
Re: claiming inheritance to someone of same last name
Scam. See 20/20 show reports.
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