Man got letter from ‘lawyer’ vowing $11M payout from stranger’s insurance. It’s fake, DA says
Recently, a Wichita man received an official-looking letter from person claiming to be an attorney, promising a big cash payout if he agreed to help him claim a dead man’s life insurance policy.
But like many things that guarantee quick and easy money, the letter was too good to be true.
Now, Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett is warning other residents in the area to be on the look-out for similar scams.
“You can’t cash in on a stranger’s life insurance policy — even if a lawyer says you can,” the Federal Trade Commission said in an article about the hoax last year.
“There is no lawyer. It’s a scammer. And if you email them, they’ll ask for personal information. Or money. Or both. And that life insurance payout? It doesn’t exist.”
The FTC says it has received multiple reports from people in minority communities who got these letters in the mail from someone posing as a Canadian lawyer. The person says they have a dead client with life insurance money no one else had claimed. The letters tell the recipient that their name can be added to the policy because they have the same last name and nationality as the deceased person.
The caveat to claiming the cash? The recipient has to split it with the law firm and charities.
“All you have to do, they say, is keep this information secret and email them immediately,” the FTC said in the article.
This was all true in the case of the Wichita man, who received such a letter, dated Oct. 21, according to a news release from Bennett’s office that included a copy of it.
The letter, packed with official-sounding jargon, is from an “Adam Anderson” who claims to be a principal partner from “Adam Anderson and Associates LLP” in Ontario. The letter opens with an apology “if my letter came to you as a surprise, since there has been no previous correspondence between us.”
The letter then delves into the juicy money-making details: The lawyer’s late client was a doctor, real estate investor and “precious stone dealer” who died from COVID-19 about three years ago and left a life insurance policy worth more than $11.5 million. No one has claimed it and all efforts to find his relatives have been fruitless, the letter says.
“Insurance company code” requires unclaimed policies “must be turned over to the abandoned property division of the state” after two or three years, the letter claims.
Agree to a partnership where 10% goes to charity and the rest is “shared between us” and “all proceeds will be processed on your behalf,” the letter falsely guarantees.
Of course, the letter promises a “100% risk-free” experience and that everything will be handled “in a highly professional and confidential manner.”
In reality, though, falling for phony get-rich-quick schemes open you up to tremendous financial risk and the possibility of identity theft, authorities say.
If you receive one of these letters, don’t respond.
Report it to the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov.
Then throw it away.
“Your report makes a difference: by telling your story to the FTC and to others in your community, you help others avoid the scam,” the FTC says.
