raider_red's Journal: My God, someone wants to give me three million dollars!

Okay, I thought these things were out of style. I've received two of these in the last week. The second one is shown below, along with all attached names and contact info. I'm thinking of emailing back just to yank his chain.

Any ideas?

Mr. Jonathan Daniels Johannesburg - South Africa.
[e-mail]
Tel: [phone]
Fax: [phone]

Dear Sir,

Courtesy of Business opportunity, I take liberty anchored on strong
desire to solicit for your assistance on this mutual beneficial and risk
free transaction with you, which I hope you give urgent attention. To be
precise, I am Jonathan Daniels the Manager of Bills/Exchange at the
Foreign Exchange/Remittance Department of NEDBANK South Africa. In my
department, we discovered an abandoned sum of US$12,524,000.00 (Twelve
Million, Five Hundred and Twenty Four Thousand United States Dollars) in an
account that belongs to one of our customers who died along with his
entire family in 1988 Lockerbie Pan American Airline plane crash.

Since we got 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 applied for its next of Kin or Relation to the
deceased as indicated in our banking procedure, but unfortunately to no
avail, and nobody has come forward to claim the money (because the
mentioned next of kin which is Son died as well).

Therefore, upon this discovery I and other two officials in my
department now decide to establish a cordial business relationship with you,
hence my contacting you. We want you to purportedly present your good
self as the next of Kin or relation of the deceased so that we can prepare
documentations and release the funds (US$12.524 Million) into your
account for safety and subsequent disbursement since nobody is coming for
it and again we do not want the funds to go into the Governments account
as "Unclaimed Bill".

The banking law and procedures herein stipulates that any account
abandoned or dormant for a period of some years is subjected to be closed
and all money contained therein will be forfeited to the Government
Treasury Account. Now it is being speculated that the above sum will be
transferred into Government Treasury Account as unclaimed funds on or
before April 2004. The reason for you to present your good self as the next
of kin in occasioned by the fact that the deceased customer was a
foreigner.

Mode of sharing after the successful completion of the transfer is as
follows, for the role you will be expected to play in the whole
exercise, we have agreed to give you twenty five (25%) of the total sum, and 5%
has been set aside for expenses we are going to encounter by both
parties in the process of this transaction and the remaining 70% shall be
for my colleagues and I. In support of the aforementioned, you are urged
to reply this letter indicating your readiness and interest to
participate in the business. After you reply, you will be advised on the next
step forward.

I quite believe that you will protect our interest by keeping this
business Top Secret and Confidential, as your interest will be equally
protected in order to achieve and maintain maximum confidentiality. Trust
to hear from you on the above numbers as I count on your earliest
response.

Yours truly,

Jonathan Daniels