What to do if you have a scammer in your professional network.

A couple of months ago, during working at office era 😊, I received a message from one of my connections on LinkedIn, more than 20000 contacts, who used to send helloes and endorse my skills.

The message such long and written in a very formal manner, not like the previous hello messages; It was as follows:

Dear Amr,

My name is (—), I work with Lloyds Bank Plc here in London, UK. I would need your consent to present you as the next of kin to our late customer Kevin Okasha, A citizen of your country who died during the March 11th, 2011 Earthquake disaster in Japan. He was a wealthy businessman who deposited {E 15,000,000.00} in our Bank. He died without any registered next of kin.

I was his account officer and had in my possession to present you as his beneficiary next of kin. I contacted you because you have the same name identity with our late client and can perfectly fit in as next of kin, we can work together to claim this fund. Please listen, this is real and goes on in Banks all over the world without people knowing.

Let us use this opportunity because it does not always come. Many customers open private accounts with different Banks without the knowledge of their families, and when they die, such money will be lost to the Bank unless someone comes to claim it. This is how a lot of Bank Directors make so much money silently. On your confirmation of this message and indicating your interest, I will furnish you with more details. Reply me through my private e-mail address (‘–‘@yahoo.com) for more details

yours sincerely

(—————-).

It was a shocking message to me as I am not used to receiving such messages on LinkedIn from my professional network. However, I decided to reply to this message.

By the end of the day, he saw that I opened the message and didn’t reply, so he sent another message saying:

“My friend this is a deal that has been in my position for a long time now, and in a short period of time if no one comes to claim it, it will be claimed by the bank manager, so if you can assist me and we claim this money, I will be very grateful. ”

I told myself, OK, let us have some fun, and I replied to him:

“Oh thank you, I already got inheritance share, Kiven is my father’s cousin and left a huge fortune in CIB bank, and Brus Don, from CIB New York branch, approached me, and we made a great deal.

You know, I want to share this enormous amount of money that Kevin Okasha left for me. I see you are a trusted person, if you wish to have $100k, please share your bank account details and your PIN on wealth.okasha@yahoo.com I will transfer the money to your account on the following day.

Yours,

Amr Okasha

His answer was: “OK, No problem.”

It was not such an encouraging answer, but I insisted on taking it to end-line, on the following day, I send another message to him: “I did not get your bank details yet, please share it, the money I have is too much to consume in one life.”

He replied:” I will share it soon,” he seems to get bored; however, I sent him in the same minute, “OK, I appreciate your help.”

In the next second, he changed his mind and decided to follow, so he wrote back to me, “why did you not tell me about this while?”

I replied: “I wanted to surprise you 🙂 You are a great friend to have.”

I did not hear him saying, “what is this shit,” but I think he did.

After a couple of hours, I send him another message “Did you share your bank details?”

He replied in a min, “hahaha hahaha, you are funny, yes I have” he wanted to finish it, but I think the easiest way to block me.

I wrote back, “That is great news, thank you, please notify me when $100k bank transfer deposited in your account, and don’t spend it on girls or drugs.”

Again he sent “  “ hahaha hahahah”

This was the end of the story but not the end of this article, no doubt if you are still here at this line, you are asking “why I am telling you this story?”, of course, the answer to your question is to teach you the moral of the story which is “the next time you receive a LinkedIn invitation ask the sender a direct question, are you a scammer?. If he said yes, then accept the invitation because he was honest with you.”

I had a different life experience with a scammer from Malaysia, but no space to tell it here, maybe in my next article, if you are interested, let me know in the comments part below.