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Someone I knew, who was in a Mexican prison, has passed away and apparently this person has left me money. The bank called me and gave me details to log into an online bank account where I could see the money in an account with my name on it.

The bank is asking me for money before it will give me the inheritance, is this legal?

Notts90
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    Sorry, the word “know” has come to be an ambiguous word. Can you edit your question to clarify the exact relationship you had with the deceased? – JTP - Apologise to Monica Aug 05 '19 at 13:42
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    "the word “know” has come to be an ambiguous word" Specifically, were you aware of this person's existence prior to them passing away, or was an unsolicited email "from a private bank" the first time you heard about them? – TripeHound Aug 05 '19 at 15:23
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    If they actually had money that belonged to you, they could deduct their fee from the money owed to you. Note that deaths are almost always public record and generally easy to find for free (to say nothing of special services that sell this information in bulk), so it is trivial to find out someone you knew/were related to died and then send you fake information about a supposed inheritance you have to pay money to collect. Don't worry about legality of charging/requesting a fee - that's the least extreme law they would be breaking, and they don't care about the law anyway. – BrianH Aug 05 '19 at 16:02
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    Possible duplicate of I'm supposedly eligible for an inheritance from a distant relative. Offer appears to be legitimate – jcaron Aug 05 '19 at 16:22
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    Yes, I knew the man. I got a call not an email. He ( the bank person) had my cell number I did not get a solicit email. The person I knew was incarcerated and was killed in a Mexican prison he I will call him J had my cell number and this is how the bank person contact me. –  Aug 05 '19 at 22:09
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    Considering this question's answer is likely "scam" and the linked one was legitimate, it seems it's not a true duplicate. Although OP has not yet clarified the relationship, only offered "Yes, I knew the man." and they shared phone numbers. – JTP - Apologise to Monica Aug 06 '19 at 00:27
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    @JoeTaxpayer yes, I hesitated, but more than the question itself, it's actually the answers (and the steps to take to verify legitimacy) that are relevant. Probably should have classified this under "related" rather than than "duplicate". – jcaron Aug 06 '19 at 12:08
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    This is a classic '419' Advanced Fee scam - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance-fee_scam – JMK Aug 06 '19 at 12:29
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    How do you know they died? Are you sure the scammer wasn't playing both people and faked their death? –  Aug 06 '19 at 13:39
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    OK, one more time - whenever someone - be it an individual "someone" or a corporate "someone" - sends you an email that says they have money for you and all you have to do is give them some money first, IT'S A SCAM! Don't click on anything, delete the email, and move on. – Bob Jarvis - Слава Україні Aug 07 '19 at 14:36
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    @BobJarvis But note that critical first in "give them some money first". Legitimate heir finders want some money, but they get it by you agreeing that it will be paid as a cut from your inheritance. – Martin Bonner supports Monica Aug 07 '19 at 15:56
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    @BobJarvis More broadly (thanks to "cash this cheque for me" scams); If anybody ever wants to trade your dollars for their dollars - it's a scam. Doesn't matter whether they send you their money before or after getting yours - theirs doesn't exist, and you will never get yours back. – Bilkokuya Aug 08 '19 at 15:01

4 Answers4

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Nobody legit will ever ask you for money to give you money. If there is a million dollar inheritance and it costs $1,000 to get the money to you, someone legit will take $1,000 from the inheritance and give $999,000 to you.

gnasher729
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  • Yes, you are right these people are scammers and try to take advantage. I'm just bewildered that the bank gave me all the information as to log into to the account and see how much is in the account with my name because I did know the person he was killed in a Mexican prison and I asked the contacter that I didnt believe this so I played along to see how much they would ask and it is to close to 5000.00 to get the inheritance. It is so sad how people play these games and try to take advantage. –  Aug 05 '19 at 21:57
  • @Candy - how did they know you knew the person and how did they get your contact information? – TTT Aug 05 '19 at 22:20
  • From his cell phone we would converse on his cell. I gave the bank my info because I knew this person so this is how they got my information. If this not legit of I will not send any money. –  Aug 05 '19 at 22:29
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    "I'm just bewildered that the bank gave me all the information as to log into to the account" - How do you know that it's not a fake bank website? – Tanner Swett Aug 06 '19 at 03:14
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    @Candy And how do you know the person calling is from a bank? The only way you know they are from a bank is if you have called the bank yourself using a number taken from the actual bank's website which you have typed in yourself. Not using a number the scammer gave you, not using a link the scammer gave you. – Graham Aug 06 '19 at 07:14
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    And even if you do as @Graham says, how do you know Acme Bank Ltd is actually a real bank, and that https://www.acmebankltd.mx is said bank's official web site? It's not difficult these days to set up a legitimate-looking web site with some fake contact details, and get a VoIP phone number in the appropriate country. – user Aug 06 '19 at 07:31
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    If you have all the information to log into the purported account of the deceased, what would prevent you from transferring all the money from that account to your own? – zovits Aug 06 '19 at 09:05
  • @zovits Log in is sometimes not sufficient to initiate a transfer. – glglgl Aug 06 '19 at 09:53
  • @zovits: in many banks from different countries there is a further level of authentication to transfer many. – Martin Argerami Aug 06 '19 at 15:38
  • @zovits: I was able to log in but not able to do any transfer because the account is inactive need to make a payment of 5K first. –  Aug 06 '19 at 17:32
  • @Graham: I will do that and call the bank. –  Aug 06 '19 at 17:33
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    @Candy Beware that the scammer might have set up a phone line with the number displayed on the website. Perform an internet search for the bank, see if it is a real bank, and if so, then call the number found on the official site found from the search page. – zovits Aug 06 '19 at 17:35
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    A sufficiently interested attacker could have replaced the contact number in the bank's website. No need to do a MitM attack (though that's a possibility), they could also have installed a browser extension on the victim's computer that replaces that number on that website (or any similar technique), or they could have hacked the bank's website altogether. I wouldn't completely trust the website. – GuilleOjeda Aug 06 '19 at 18:16
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    @Blueriver - An attacker that sophisticated and with that level of control of the OP's computer probably wouldn't need the ruse, nor would they want to tip their hand by making direct contact. This sounds like a less sophisticated scam. With a big enough net, even a low success rate would still net a lot of money. – JDB Aug 08 '19 at 20:49
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I was contacted by a private bank overseas to get my inheritance

Umm, sorry - but no, you weren't.

You were contacted by a scam artist who is banking on your greed outweighing your common sense.
Inheritance & deceased estates don't work that way. The executors of the estate may be able to deduct some of their costs from the estate, but that's done directly and does not get paid by the beneficiaries.

Don't fall for this. You're not going to see any money. You will lose any money you send.

brhans
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    Correct - any inheritance work would be done by a lawyer or employee of a law firm. – Criggie Aug 06 '19 at 12:26
  • Yes, I know it just someone that I knew my friend was killed and now they are contacting me after his death to do this scam. Thanks –  Aug 06 '19 at 14:15
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    @Candy Deaths tend to be public. Chances are the scammer looked them up on Facebook and sent this to all their friends. – ceejayoz Aug 06 '19 at 15:09
  • Agreed - and to add, the scammers will give you a legitimate looking bank account to send the money to (possibly making you think you may have some banking regulations to protect you). If you do send money, they'll quickly get it out and close that account (and disappear), making it impossible for your bank to ever recover the money. As you say: you will lose any money you send. – Ralph Bolton Aug 07 '19 at 08:58
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    @Criggie: Not necessarily. Many localities allow the executor/trix of an estate to be any person the deceased appoints, and that person doesn't need to an attorney or employee of one. – GreenMatt Aug 07 '19 at 21:54
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Going by your comments under gnasher's answer, the scam goes something like this: The scammer is, or is associated with, someone who knew the deceased in prison. They found out enough about you from the deceased to get your contact information.

Then, when the deceased died, the scammer used this information to set up an advance-fee scam specifically targeted at you (and probably other people similarly connected to the deceased and/or sharing your first and last names), banking on the extra layer of credibility to get you to fall for it.

HAEM
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    It’s by no means clear that the ”deceased” has actually died. The original poster doesn’t say how they learned of the ”death”, so they may only have the scammer’s word for it. – Mike Scott Aug 06 '19 at 13:52
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    @MikeScott OP clearifies in a comment on brhans' answer that he knows the friend got killed – J_rite Aug 07 '19 at 05:41
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If you receive and accept an inheritance, there's 2 things you have to pay:

  • Debts.
  • Taxes.

What's common to both is they only apply after you received the assets of the inheritance, and neither is owed to the executor.

If you are worried about getting bad advice on the internet, and are concerned that the basic rules may not apply overseas, you can always contact the local embassy to ask for specific unusual rules regarding international inheritance (e.g. the US embassy in Nigeria, if you're from the US and the overseas "bank" is from Nigeria).

Peter
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  • The inheritance is in Scotland. I am requesting a copy of my friend death certificate. Does the payment for the debts and taxes need to be pay in advance? This is part of the email I received from the private bank:This Includes all legal settlements associated with the inheritance. Once payment is received, It will be activated within 24 business hours, once it’s active we can then forward it to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to have it cleared in order to avoid tax invasion and against money laundering, then you can make any transfer to any designated account in the world –  Aug 06 '19 at 17:11
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    Even more so in Scotland, eveything is done through sollicitors (lawyers) ... For this kind of matter, if you haven't talked to one yet this is a bad recipe... – Hoki Aug 06 '19 at 17:14
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    @Candy Scammers are willing and able to forge documents. If you don't trust the very clear and unanimous advice in the answers, contact the US consulate in Edinburgh (https://uk.usembassy.gov/embassy-consulates/edinburgh/contact-consulate-general-edinburgh/) to ask if this is how Scottish inheritances work. Spoiler: No, it's not. – Peter Aug 06 '19 at 17:19
  • I will thanks for the info and I requested my friend death certificate. –  Aug 06 '19 at 17:22
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    The bank is called Scottish Private bank I tried looking it up and couldn't find anything –  Aug 06 '19 at 18:14
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    @Candy a legitimate death certificate (if you can validate the certificate's legitimacy) only proves that your friend passed away (my condolences). It does NOT prove that he left an inheritance, that you're the recipient of that inheritance, that the mentioned bank exists, that said bank is the executor, that the person who contacted you is acting on behalf of said bank, or that the process they explained to you is legitimate and accurate. – GuilleOjeda Aug 06 '19 at 18:20
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    @Blueriver: I had called the bank number and a robotic voice answering machine picked up so, i am convinced that this is fraudulent. I need to report this. Who do I report this to? –  Aug 06 '19 at 18:31
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    @Candy I know of no agency that is able and willing to follow up on international cases like these where no monetary damage was done (and there are precious few that care even if damage was done). You may get better answers on "Who do I report this to" if you write a separate question, or look if one already exists. – Peter Aug 06 '19 at 21:33
  • I recieved a copy if the death certificate I dont think it's legitimate. I believe he passed but this bank thing is a scam. –  Aug 07 '19 at 13:37
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    Uh, no. The estate has to pay the debts and taxes of the estate. Then if there's anything left over the named beneficiaries inherit the assets. But (at least in the US) the soon-to-be-dearly-departed cannot assign their debts to others. – Bob Jarvis - Слава Україні Aug 07 '19 at 14:42
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    You should still report it to the FBI at https://www.fbi.gov/scams-and-safety/common-fraud-schemes/internet-fraud because the origin may not be in scotland or mexico at all, and also because it's good to know what's going around (thieves are not that imaginative) –  Aug 07 '19 at 19:40
  • I asked the contact from the bank how did he get my cell. He replied my friend had me as a contact and that's how he got a hold of me. J was a man I was in contact for over 3 years and knew him I received a copy of his death certificate but I I was informed by the contact from the bank that I needed to pay this amount 5k to activate the account for tax invasion and money laundering –  Aug 07 '19 at 19:58
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    "Tax invasion" is not a thing. Tax evasion yes. This is 100% definitely totally a scam. – Vicky Aug 08 '19 at 07:09
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    Also there's no such bank as "Scottish Private Bank" and no bank in the UK would ever require you to pay £5k to activate an account. Scam scam scammy scam. – Vicky Aug 08 '19 at 07:10
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    @Candy NO BANK will EVER require money from to be paid in advance you to "activate" an account so they can transfer money out of it to yours. If there are transaction fees for the transfer, those will be deducted from the money you actually receive after they're done doing their thing. And giving them the death certificate and a notaried letter stating you're the intended executor of the estate (and thus will have authority over the account) is the only thing a bank needs to transfer ownership of the account to your name and provide you with the means to access that account. – jwenting Aug 08 '19 at 08:17
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    So the bank will need from you only the following: 1) proof of identity, 2) copy of the death certificate, 3) proof that you're the person who will have authority over the account. The bank will NEVER contact you to say they have money for you. A solicitor for the estate would do that instead and provide you with items 2) and 3) and the details of where to find the account. THAT's how an inheritance works. Someone calling you claiming they're from a bank and someone you knew died and just send us money so we can give you something out of an account is ALWAYS a scam. – jwenting Aug 08 '19 at 08:19
  • International scams can also be reported at https://www.econsumer.gov . However I doubt anything more happens than feeding into some statistics; just says "Your complaint helps authorities spot trends and combat fraud." – timday Aug 10 '19 at 14:42