While this threat is an old one, it has been cropping up in my mailbox recently with surprising frequency. These scam messages are of course from senders I do not know and usually include the sender stating they are the orphaned child or servant of a wealthy family or military leader from place the name of some city & country here. Over the past few weeks, it has been Abidjan in Cote d'Ivoire (formerly known as Ivory Coast); a small country in western Africa located between Liberia and Ghana.
The mail states that the sender has discovered an extremely large amount of money from their wealthy benefactor (in my case it was $7.5 million), but needs your assistance to get it out of the country before it can be seized by the government or an evil relative or business partner. The sender offers to give you a percentage of the money (in my case %15 or a cool $1.1 million for me).
The initial message, or if you respond and get a follow-up message will include a request that you provide personal information including name, address, social security number and/or bank account information so the scammer can transfer the money.
This is known as a Nigerian 419 Scam or just 419 Scam, so named because it violates section 419 of Nigerian criminal code. If someone foolishly provides the information I described above in the hopes of a huge windfall, they usually discover that their bank account has been emptied and/or that they've become the victim of identity theft.
Once again, if you receive a message from someone you don't know, treat it with high suspicion. If they want personal or financial information, do not provide it. I ran across a pretty funny exchange between a scammer and his too wily "victim" that shows just how persistent these scammers can be. The Spam Letters made for an interesting read and I found the baiting of the scammer to be most amusing.
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