By AARP
September 6th, 2023
Who hasn’t daydreamed about inheriting a multimillion-dollar fortune from some previously unknown distant relative… Scammers know how alluring that fantasy can be.
That’s why they invented the inheritance scam, in which they dangle the prospect of a lavish windfall in front of their targets, asking them to pay a fee to access their inherited wealth. In reality, they’re just trying to steal the potential victims’ money and possibly their sensitive personal data as well.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) received 2,762 reports of what it calls “foreign money and inheritance scams” in 2022, up from 2,447 the previous year. That’s probably just the tip of the iceberg, since scams are notoriously unreported. The FBI, which lumps inheritance scams with lottery and sweepstakes scams, says it received reports of losses totaling nearly $70 million for the category in 2022.
How to protect yourself:
- If you get a letter or email out of the blue from somebody who claims that you’ve inherited a fortune, the safest thing to do is to tear up the letter or delete the email instead of responding.
- Never share sensitive personal or financial information with someone you aren’t completely sure you can trust.
- If you think there’s a chance that the correspondence might be legitimate, consider your family history and see if the facts seem to match up. Even if they do, however, don’t respond without first consulting an attorney.
- Remember that legitimate law firms or executors don’t ask you to pay a fee in exchange for information about your share in an estate.
