"Nigerian" Email Scam

Good day, I am R~, a staff of BROWN SHIPLEY PRIVATE BANK UK.I am Contacting you in respect to US$15 Million deposited with our private bank whose original depositor died in mid 2003, In line with our internal processes for account holders who have passed away, we instituted our own investigations in good fate to determine who should have right to claim the estate. This investigation has for the past years been unfruitful. We have scanned every continent and used our private investigation affiliate companies to get to the root of the problem all to no avail. The bank will by the end of its financial year in 2007 broadcast a request for statements of claims, failing to receive viable claims they will revert the deposit back to BROWN SHIPLEY PRIVATE BANK accounting system.If you are familiar with private banking affair you will agree with me that the world of private banking especially is fraught with huge rewards for those who occupy certain offices and oversee certain portfolios. As a matter of fact, my present official capacity as the Executive Director Audit sector dictates that I am the only party to supervise the investigation in relation to the deposit and the beneficiary of the deposit. My proposal: I am prepared to norminate you as the next of kin and have them release the deposit to you. We share the proceeds 50/50.There is a reward for this project and it is a task well worth undertaking. I have evaluated the risk and the only risk I have here is from you refusing to work with me and alerting my bank.if you find yourself able to work with me, contact me through this email account. If you give me positive signals, I will initiate this process towards a conclusion. I wish to inform you that should you contact me via official channels; I will deny knowing you and about this project. I repeat, I do not want you contacting me through my official phone lines nor do I want you contacting me through my official email account. Contact me only through the numbers I will provide for you and also through this email address. I do not want any direct link between you and myself. My official lines are not secured lines as they are periodically monitored to access our level of customer care in line with our Total Quality Management Policy. Awaiting your immediate response.

Thanks for your co-operation.
Kindly send your response to s~.com
Sincerely, R~

My first thought was to paste the entire email including the actual name and email address that appeared in the email but I decided not to do it.

I saw a segment on television where this news team tried to track where this kind of email was coming from. They got all the way to talking with the actual person that was "handling" the deal.

Would it surprise you to know that a lot of people have fallen for this type of email scheme?

Are You An AOL Member?

Here is a recent email:

Welcome to AOL Customer Support
Dear AOL Member

It has come to our attention that your AOL Billing Information records are out of date. That requires you to update the Billing Information. Failure to update your records will result in account termination. Please update your records within 24 hours. Once you have updated your account records, your AOL session will not be interrupted and will continue as normal. Failure to update will result in cancellation of service, Terms of Service (TOS) violations or future billing problems. You must click the link below and enter your login information on the following page to confirm your Billing Information records..

Thank You

---

The last line of the email provides a link to "customer support" only that link does not go to an AOL page, it goes to another site! You can tell this by positioning your cursor over the link but not clicking on it!.

Of course this email is an attempt to get your AOL sign-in information! Once you type it in there is no telling what kind of damage can be done to your AOL account!

AOL themselves have said that they will never ask you for your password. So if you get an email like this do not click on that link! Instead get in touch with AOL yourself!