I just received an email from a Mr Peter Lee informing me that he wishes to go into partnership to recover an unclaimed deposit of USD$19.5 Million from the Hang Seng Bank in Hong Kong.

All I have to do is provide him with my full name, my address, my phone number, and occupation; he will do the rest.  As you can imagine I am reasonably excited about this. He offers a fair split of 70 / 30. Afterall he is taking the risk in getting the fraudulant paper work made up detailing exactly how  I am next of kin to a dead Iraqi Colonel and his family.

Hold on it says he got my address from the Australian Businessmen Trade Centres Chamber of Commerce. Cool I did not know that I belonged to that. Let me just google the key details of the email first....

Oh no. It appears that a Mr Peter Lee Ting Chang did work for the Hang Seng Bank, but unfortunately passed away on October 17,  2009 - according to the Hang Seng Bank website. Bummer. He is pretty clever sending these emails from the afterworld, or has the network spam filter just released this crucially important opportunity to me?

MMmmmm.

Google quickly spat up 4.13 million hits for "Peter Lee Hang Seng Bank" - with most of the ones at the top belonging to antispam / fraud watchdog sites. I thinks I wont be clicking on the link anytime soon.

Here is the email. I spotted it as fake / spam right away as I have been getting nearly one of these a day lately.
What is disconcerting is that the emails are no longer as blatant as the original Nigerian Banking Scam emails, but the premise is the same, and how many poor people got sucked into those emails?
Folks, all you have to do when you get one of these emails is do a quick google before clicking on anything. Pick up the key words and slot them into the Google Machine. Google knows nearly everything. Trust it with your first born.

Attention,
Although you might be apprehensive about my email as we have not met before. I am sorry to encroach into your privacy in this manner, I found you listed in the Australia Businessmen Trade Centre Chambers of Commerce directory here in Hong Kong . Please do accept my sincere apologies if my mail does not meet your personal ethics. I am writing you for the second time since you did not reply to me at first email sent to you.
However, I am contacting you in order to ask for your assistance on this confidential business proposal with full financial benefit for both of us. Before I go into further details, please be informed that I am writing without any other person(s) pre-knowledge of my contacting you on this transaction. Therefore I will appreciate same attitude to be maintained by you all through. Let me start by introducing myself again.
I am Mr.PETER LEE I work with the Hang Seng Bank Ltd.Before the U.S and Iraqi war our client Colonel Sadiq Uday who was with the Iraqi forces and also businessman, made a numbered fixed deposit for 18 calendar months, with a value of Nineteen millions Five Hundred Thousand United State Dollars only in my branch. Upon maturity several notices was sent to him, even during the war which began in 2003.
Again after the war another notification was sent and still no response came from him. We later found out that the Colonel along with his wife and only daughter had been killed during the war in a bomb blast that hit their home. After further investigation it was also discovered that Colonel Sadiq Uday did not declare any next of kin in his official papers including the paper work of his bank deposit. And he also confided in me the last time he was at my office that no one except me knew of his deposit in my bank. So, Nineteen millions Five Hundred Thousand United State Dollars is still lying in my bank and no one will ever come forward to claim it.
What bothers me most is that according to the laws of my country at the expiration 5 years the funds will revert to the ownership of the Hong Kong Government if nobody applies to claim the funds. Against this backdrop, my suggestion to you is that I will like you as a foreigner to stand as the next of kin to Colonel Sadiq Uday so that you will be able to receive his funds.

MODALITIES:
I want you to know that I have had everything planned out so that we shall come out successful. I have an attorney that will prepare the necessary document that will back you up as the next of kin to Colonel Sadiq Uday, all that is required from you at this stage is for you to provide me with your Full Names and Address so that the attorney can commence his job. After you have been made the next of kin, the attorney will also fill in for claims on your behalf and secure the necessary approval and of probate in your favour for the move of the funds to an account that will be provided by you. There is no risk involved at all in this matter, as we are going to adopt a legalized method and the attorney will prepare all the necessary documents.

Please endeavour to observe utmost discretion in all matters concerning this issue. Once the funds have been transferred to your nominated bank account we shall then share in the ratio of 70% for me, 30% for you. Should you be interested please send me your, 1, Full names: 2, Private phone number: 3, Current residential address: 4,Occupation:
And finally after that I shall provide you with more details of this operation.
I will notify you on the full transaction on receipt of your response if interested, and I shall send you the details and necessary procedures with which to make the transfer.
Contact me through this email address below.
E-mail; This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
I await your urgent response.
Kind Regards,
Mr.Peter Lee.