Inheritance scam???? (moved)

If anyone can help me to find info on what I believe may be an inheritance scam that my 78year old friend may be caught in I would really be grateful. I have read the post here and so far it is pointing in that direction. What I gather is he was contacted about 3 years ago by a Gayleatha Brown who claims to have been an ambassador to Benin recently moved to India by Pres. Obama. He was referred by her to a lawyer, Pedro Kelly who is in Africa. And the financial (minister?) is a Larry Land. It is supposed to be a 13 million dollar inheritance left to him by an aunt who was in the United Kingdom. He states that the money was originally in the United Bank of Africa then moved to Central Bank of Nigeria (sounds like everything I have read on your posts). As I said this friend is 78 years old and I am extremely concerned for him. If you could please give me some direction as to go to protect him from being harmed or ease my worries I would be very grateful.
Thank you
W

Moved to this topic for more help. ~Bubbles

It would be helpful if you would post up some of the emails that have been received. Just from the little you have posted, it does have indicators of a scam. It would also be helpful if you would post the email address the messages have come from.

You can put the email address in a search engine to see if it comes up as being used by a scammer. You can also search some of the phrases in the early emails as scammers typically use a script.

We can also give you tips on how you can break the news to your friend.

Inheritance scams are real common. Sadly if your friend has been communication with a scammer for 3 years, they most likely have send the scammer money many times. You can read more here: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=3242

There is no money to be inherited. The money will only flow from the victim to the scammer.

The Ambassador story is incorrect according to this. As I have re read your post, I am confident your friend is communicating with and sending money to a scammer.

More information will be helpful though. I am sorry, no good news.

Thank you so much for taking the time to respond, I was afraid that was the case. He is such a sweet older gentlemen my husband and I have "adopted". I am pretty sure he knows in the back of his mind that he is being scammed as he has been vague to my questions of if he received this info via email or regular post mail. I will try to get the email addresses so that they can be traced. I would very much appreciate the tips on how to break the bad news to him.
I also forgot to include the fact that he mentions an IMF, which I looked up and also read about in the post on this site. Just another warning bell....
Thank you again so very much for your time. I hate to break this to him but he is very dear to us and we want to make sure he doesn't allow himself to be taken for this ride any longer.
W

Sad to read your story wendya. Scammers do not have a heart or conscious.
Some posters in the forums have been scammed too. And realize and understand what others are going through.
I notice the name Gayleatha Brown in your post. That name appears in a fraudulant email dated May 2010.
http://www.419scam.org/emails/2011-01/2 ... 1.3058.htm down towards the base of that page.

I see the name larry land (from the ministry of finance) also gets a mention. That name has been previously used in a scam also from May 2010

http://www.scamdex.com/email-scam-datab ... 074P24831V is where it is.

What your friend must realize he has nothing wrong. It is not his fault the other parties are fraudulant criminals. If your friend has sent money (probably wu or mg) I'm afraid there is no chance of recovering the sent money.
As the other posters have indicated, please include email addresses, maybe a phone number or any other details you may have from these frauds.
I'm sorry there is no better news.

Thank you everyone so very much for your kind words and guidance. My husband spoke with our friend this morning explaining that I have been doing a little research and that it would be helpful if he would give us the contact emails of the previously mentioned people. Explaining to him that we just wanted to make sure it was legitimate and if it was then great, no harm, no foul. The following are the email contacts that were sent to us:

Mrs. Gayleatha Brown : [email protected]

Mr. Larry Land: [email protected]

Mr. Pedro Kelly - Barrister: [email protected]

Thank you again, what you do here helping others is just amazing.
W

No wendya, thankyou for asking the question. Had you have not done so, the situation would have been worse. The best course of action for your fiend to simply cease all contact immediately with the fraudulant people. The names and addresses are of enormous benefit because others conducting a search will be alerted
Yahoo says: [email protected]
Yahoo member since: 10/09/2009

Larry Land: [email protected]
Yahoo member since: 11/06/2009

[email protected]
Yahoo member since: 03/08/2009
The scammer/s created the yahoo addresses in the latter half of that year.

Welcome here wendya.

There is no doubt that your friend is being scammed. If he is already 3 years in contact with these scammers, then it's likely that he has payed them. Getting such a long term victim off the hook is difficult. Try to talk sense in to him. First of all, ask him if this heritence comes from a family member he knows, and not just some person who happens to have thesame last name. If one is entitled to receive an inheritence, then there are no costs involved, costs are already taken care of by the prosecutor/bank, only if the deseased person had debts instead of a fortune, then the next of kins may find themselfs responsible for clearing these debts. But that is not the case here.
Try to look at the emails your friend has received, and first of all point out that lawyers or financial ministers don't use yahoo email accounts. The emails should be full of nonsense about why there are certain fees to be payd. Again, for a real inheritance, there should be no costs involved. But in this case, there is no inheritence, it is all a lie made up by the scammer.

Any email that mentions the IMF is a scam. It deals with countries only not individuals.

Thank you everyone, thats what I thought too. I had researched the IMF and thought this was all a scam. Today we will be taking these post to our friend and speaking with him.
Thank you again for all your time
W