The Nigerian Email scam has entered pop culture as an example of a con that is painfully obvious to almost everyone who has received a plea in the mail or on the web. However, for the credulant few, the scams have proven expensive and resulted in life savings being blown and much misery being spread. In recent years, inheritance scams have grown in complexity with specific people being targeted using the name and information of recently deceased relations which adds tremendous plausibility and ensnares more people as a result. Ultimately, the best defense is knowledge so it is always a good idea to advise clients to be cautious when being promised huge returns down the road for a big investment now. A deal that is too good to be true will often prove the old saying accurate and result in lost hope and indebtedness.
See Mark Wight, Inheritance Scammers Won’t Quit – Because it Still Works, Idaho Estate Planning, September 14, 2015.
Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse for bringing this article to my attention.
