Grace Owen - [email protected]

[TieBun]

I was offered a large amount of money as compensation for my part in assisting to get an inheritance of a Mrs. Veronica Ali of Lome, Togo transferred to my account for charity purposes. I figured this was a scam to begin with and didn't follow through. However, I got an email later from this Mrs. Ali telling me that she is giving me a compensation of 200,000 Euros for my effort even though it didn't work out. I was given a Barrister Kopengo Oris <[email protected]> that was supposed to assist me to obtain the compensation. I was requested by him to follow the Banque Atlantique in Lome, Togo and open an account with them and remit 200 Euros. I thought the sum wasn't too large so I went ahead and remitted it through MoneyGram. Then the story proceeds to, I have to pay an activation fee of 1050 Euros so that I can have the 200,000 Euros transferred to my account. I stopped here and have written to the bank's website contact email requesting information of the validity of this transaction. They haven't replied yet for 4 weeks. I am copying the original message from the bank below. Can you help me? I suppose it is all an advance fee scam.

From: BANQUE ATLANTIQUE <[email protected]>
Subject: Notification ( after your lawyer complain for none receipt of our email message

BANQUE ATLANTIQUE TOGO
Phone: 0022891878543
For the attention of: XXX

This is to confirm your account has been established and your total fund has been deposited into it. Meanwhile, before an immediate transfer of funds to your account , we wish to let you know that your account must be activated with a sum of €1,050.00, This account activation fee is refundable as it will be added to your account.

Therefore, you must urgently send your account activation fee by transferring money from Money Gram Express Transfer to your accountant name and immediately it is received, your account will be activated and proceed for transfer of first instalment of €50,000.00 to your nominated bank account and we will also issue and send to you a Visa / Master ATM card that you will use for a withdrawal of an equivalent amount of €10,000.00 every 24 hours.

The required account activation fee should be send through our accountant as stated bellow:<br/>

Surname: OKONENE
Other name: FABRICE
City: LOME
Country: REPUBLIC OF TOGO

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation. Your account statement is attached

You in the service

Mrs. Grace Owen
For BATG TOGO

[AlanJones]

Sorry, but it is a definite scam.

The email address [email protected] is a free email address, which a real bank would not be using.

Anyone offering you large sums of money and requiring you to pay fees to get it is a scammer.

[TieBun]

Ok I did believe it was a scam anyways. I have a question though. I did write to the Banque Atlantique's website contact email address [Removed - AJ] requesting if the email I received from this Mrs. Owen was legitimate or not. They never answered. Is this common practice for banks to disregard such requests? It only made me think that this bank's officials may be actually involved in this fraud and may be using fake email addresses. What can you say about this? Thanks!

Sincerely,
TieBun

[AlanJones]

The bank's officials aren't involved in the scam.

The email address was a general information address, which will receive many emails a day, so it is more likely that your email was never responded to because whoever received it did not have a clue what you are talking about or which department to send it to, or it never actually got delivered and ended up being blocked by their spam filters.

[TieBun]

Hi Alan,
Thanks for your information and support. Appreciate it!