is this a scam?

Question

From Sylvie Kochem.
Rue 15 Lot 19 Cocody Abidjan
Email : [e-mail]


Dearest one,

Mysteries has gone in my life. Life has become restless for me in this
western part of Africa. 29th September 2005 later in the night the
murders came without a pity without a mercy they killed my father in
front of me.

My father was a wealthy merchant.The trouble began early 2005 when my
father's associates started suspecting that my father is not giving
proper accounts of all the tons of cocoa being cultivated by local
farmers in some villages. This mistrust deepens between Jul-Aug 2005
when they discovered a very big some of money my father deposited with
a security company here in Abidjan Cote D'Ivoire.

As a result of this discovery and the enviness of the money , he was
killed by his associates. Before this, he revealed to me the reasons of
his being hated. He directed me where to get the documents of the said
deposit, he told me that he enrolled my name as his next of kin for the
deposit, being the only child. He advised me that I should not stay in
the country because his enemies might equally kill me to reap all his
wealth hence my mother died five years ago of cancer.

He instructed me that if he dies, that I should look for a foreign
partner who will help me to transfer the money into the person's
account and the person will help me to invest the money in his or her
country. My father finally died on 29th of September and since then I
was out of school and went into hiding because of my father's
associates.


All the relevant documents of the $8.500,000,00 (Eight Million Five
Hundred Thousand united states dollars) that was deposited in a
security company are intact with me now.

My name is Sylvie Kochem. I am 20yrs old. Please I would require your
urgent assistance so that I can move out from here before they kill me
as they are tracing my hide out. I agreed to give you 20% of this money
if you can help me bring out this box from the security company and
transfer this money into your account for onward investment in your
country.

Please try contact me immediately direct to my E-mail address
[e-mail] and include your telephone and Fax numbers in
your response to enable me send you all necessary details as regards to
the procedure of securing the consignment fund out from the security
company and transferring the fund to your end account.

Please be rest assured that this transaction is 100% risk free.


I'm waiting for your urgent reply.

With love
Sylvie Kochem.

Answer 1

Of course it's a scam!
If you give them your details they could steal your identity and commit fraud. If you give them your account number as well they will empty your bank account, as well as taking loans under your name and committing fraud and even crimes.

Answer 2

The fact that he has your real name and home address, you DO NOT want to play him at his own game. That only works if it's an email scammer and your email address does not contain your real name - then you can scambait them. But these are not lone individuals conducting these check scams - they are criminal gangs and you do not want to mess with them when they know where you live. These money laundering scams are usually run by the Russian or Nigerian mafia and they are brutal. All you can do is tell him you deposited the check and were on your way to Western Union when your bank called to tell you there was a problem with the check and you needed to come back. Say you went back and the police were there, who took you into the station for questioning. Say that you gave the police his name and email and showed them the emails that this was a real job offer, and that he has to go to the police station when he's back in the US to sort everything out. Say you still want the job but you will only take cash when you appear at the job, nothing else, as you are now under investigation for bank fraud and your account has been temporarily frozen until he goes to the police and settles this matter. But don't go beyond that since they do know where you live and your real name. Reporting this to the FBI is the best way to get back at them.

Answer 3

Yes!! first of all, since when is someone from Africa named Sylvie Kochem?? Thats CLEARLY a French-Canadian name or something..
Second, if this guy is in "hiding" how does he take the time to write an email to some random person HOPING to get a response.
Third, I've gotten about 10 different emails from so-called "doctors" and "merchants" and "wealthy heirs" in dire need of my assistance. They ask for a number, then they ask for banking information so they can transfer YOUR money to THEIR accounts..
Fourth I googled it, and I went to a site that matched, and all it said was !RED!DWARF!SPAM!RED!DWARF!SPAM! so you can only guess what that means...
its SPAM.

Answer 4

Definately a scam. All they want is for you to give them your account numbers and the next thing you know you owe your bank 100's of thousands of dollars because they emptied it, overdrew, and the bank starts charging huge fees. It has happened to a few people around here. I would think you would be able to turn it over to the police for investigation.

Whatever you do, don't give them any information about your bank!!

Answer 5

Yes

Answer 6

Nigerian 419 Scam! You can always tell it's one of them, they always say they need money out of their country (or a variant).

In case you haven't guessed, when they get your credit card number, they take all the money out of it.

Don't reply to the email. If you do, they pass your email address onto others, even if you say you're not interested.

Answer 7

If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is. If you are ever unsure if something is a scam or not, check out web sites made specifically for that. Here are two:

www.urbanlegends.com
www.snopes.com

Answer 8

Yes! Avoid!

Answer 9

yes, i get those kind of emails all the time. most of them come from someone in africa. just mark that email as spam so that it wont be put in you regular inbox again.

Answer 10

scam.

Like anyone is gonna have to e-mail a random person to help them with fianacial problems.