By JESSE GRAHAM
IT’S not every day that you receive a letter saying you’re the recipient of $10 million dollars.
It’s even less often that such letters arrive that are legitimate.
Healesville’s Greg Chapman said that he received a letter on Wednesday 25 June, allegedly from TD Canada Trust, informing him of a $10.7 million (US dollar) inheritance that awaited him.
The inheritance, according to the letter-writer, had been sitting for around 10 years without being claimed, and, if Mr Chapman didn’t act, would be forfeited.
Mr Chapman said that he believed the letter was designed to provoke the reader to react quickly to claim the alleged inheritance, and be caught in the scam.
He said the content of the letter was also very vague, while being riddled with grammatical errors, and that the contact for the letter had provided a personal email account – not a business account – for contact.
“I believe the next step would be them asking me for my bank account,” he said.
Mr Chapman said the timing of the letter was interesting, as one of his Facebook friends had their accounts hacked a week prior – Mr Chapman said his postal address was available on that account.
He said that he wanted to raise awareness of the letter, in case other people had received similar letters recently.
“Some people might grab at something like this,” he said.
“I just want to make people aware.”
TD Canada Trust Representative, Jennifer Co, responded to the Mail and confirmed that the letter was not from the company.
“TD Canada Trust has not and will not send letters or messages to customers such as the one you received, or messages requesting confidential banking information,” she said.
The government’s ScamWatch website has a section dedicated to fake inheritance letters, and offers a number of warning signs for people to watch out for.
The website recommends never giving out credit card or online account details, or copies of personal documents, and avoiding any arrangement regarding money transfers.
For more information, visit www.scamwatch.gov.au or call 1300 795 995.
The Mail attempted to contact TD Canada Trust about the scam letter, but the organisation did not respond by deadline.
