I got the following scam email on July 3rd 2007.

REPLY
I am Mr. Wang HongZhang, Chief Disciplinary Officer, People’s Bank of China, Beijing. I have a business proposal for you.

Before the U.S and Iraqi war, our client Khazeal Hamood Hasaab a Merchant made a fixed deposit of 24.5mUSD,for 18 months,in my branch. Upon maturity several notices were sent to him, during and after the war, which began in 2003. We later found out that my client, his wife and two sons had been killed during the war.

At the expiration of 4yrs the funds will revert to the ownership of the Hong Kong Government, if nobody applies to claim it. I will like you, as a foreigner, to stand as next of kin, so that we can receive his funds: http://www.iraqbodycount.net/names.htm.

Your earliest response to this letter will be appreciated.
wang EMAIL:hzhangwang@yahoo.com.cn

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One of the variations of the 419 advance free fraud scam. Do not believe the content, this lowlife is after your money. I won’t go into the fact that as an English rose type I would hardly pass as an Iraqi merchants next of kin.

I googled the name Mr. Wang HongZhang and the top listed site was an official looking People’s Bank of China site with Mr. Wang HongZhang listed as the Chief Disciplinary Officer. Maybe they have spanking in Chinese banks after all!

I find it difficult to believe that somebody in Mr. Wang HongZhang’s profession would perpetrate this scam so perhaps the scamster has hijacked Mr. Wang HongZhang’s identity to add more credibility to his tale, or the bank site is part of the scam. To find out I emailed Mr. Wang HongZhang at the bank and am awaiting his reply. If I get a reply I will update this article.

I also googled Khazeal Hamood Hasaab and apart from finding that this email has been used many times I found out that Khazeal Hamood Hasaab is listed among the dead on a memorial site apart from the site mentioned in the email. How sick if the name has been chosen from these sites to add more credibility.

A few years ago I replied scathingly to one of the 419 scam emails, but unfortunately I had forgotten that my telephone number was in the signature. I received some very sinister and threatening late night telephone calls and since then have never replied to these emails even though I’m tempted to tell them just what low lifes I think they are.

During my searches I found the following thread in a forum about this scam

http://forum.419eater.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=115948

Although I don’t recommend replying to the scam emails I loved reading these exchanges. Great stuff.