Too bad I can't accept, I could really use a few bucks about now.

First, it's a scam. An old one. If I were to accept, they would want my bank account number in order to make the transfer. And there would be fees that have to be payed, which they (not having access to the money) need me to send them money for. And then a few more, a few more, a few more... but hey, what's a few hundred or thousand when there is 15 million on the line? If I play along to the end and this follows the usual pattern, I may eventualy be invited to fly out to pick up the money (Hmm, wasn't it supposed to be a bank transfer?) and when I arrive, I'll be robbed and perhaps killed.

Second, even if it weren't a scam, that's $15M that isn't mine. Is the owner dead or is it a database error? Are there really no heirs? What are Swaziland's laws about what happens to property when the owner dies and heirs cannot be found? I can pretty much guess that the answer isn't that it becomes the property of a random foreigner. Even if there is no applicable law, it almost certainly has a rightfull owner. And on the off chance that it doesn't, it ought to be applied to the benefit of the community of the last rightfull owner.

In most of these messages, the story is that the money was controlled by a civil servant who was murdered by the new regime, which is preventing its release to the deserving (although not exactly legally entitled) family. In other words, if you weren't being scammed you would be money-laundering and probably participating in embezzelment or outright theft. That's part of the charm of the scam - the victim is deterred from going to the authorities by guilt.

What I find amazing is that some people don't see the consequences of the best possible outcome: Suddenly, you have a bank account with a few million dollars in it that you can't explain. And you will be called on to explain it. If it were cash or gold bars or something you might be able to sit on it and pull a little out once in a while and nobody would notice. But it's in a bank. Paperwork. Regulators. Large-transaction reporting. A few hundred, a few thousand, and unless you get audited maybe you slip through the cracks, even if you do get audited they care whether you paid taxes on it and only wonder where you got it for cross checking and only care about the answer if it involves drugs. A few million, and somebody's going to notice. Guaranteed. And be very curious about where it came from. I have yet to see one of these where the answer wouldn't involve lawyers and the State Department, and unless the lawyer was very good, hard time.

Here is the message:

Dear Friend,

With due respect, I would Like to disclose a mutual
transaction to you. I am Mr. Jaja Kadozo Head Foreign
Operation Unit of Dhabian Safe and Vault Consultancy
Services, Swaziland.

We have a consignment in our custody valued at
$15,000,000.00 USD (Fifteen Million United States
Dollars) which was deposited by one of our customers
from France. For the past six years it is been
recorded in our computer system that the beneficiary
of the deposited consignment is dead and up till date
we have not received any word from his relatives
concerning claims of the deposited consignment.

Based on the above, two of my colleagues and I,
resolved to solicit for your cooperation to move  this
consignment to your destination or to any of our
sister's company in Europe for your collection as the
beneficiary, we will be responsible for all the
documentations that will give your claim all legal
backings needed.

However, as soon as I receive your favourable response
then I will update you on the mapped out procedures
towards the successfull shipment of this consignment
to your nominated destination.

I am looking forward for your kind response.

Regards,

Mr. Jaja Kadozo