This email claims that an entity named the European Debt Recovery Unit is “aware of your sad ordeal about your unpaid fund” and can help you receive the money previously promised to you.
Supposedly, the sender has discovered that the people who you were previously dealing with deliberately withheld your funds and continued to demand fees from you when they should have already sent you the money.
The European Debt Recovery Agent promises to rectify the issue and asks you to contact him so that he can arrange the release of your funds.
But, alas, the email is itself a scam that deliberately targets people that have become victims of previous advance fee scams.
In a typical advance fee scam, criminals contact people and promise that they will receive a very large sum of money in exchange for their assistance. If people reply as instructed, they will be told that they must pay various upfront fees before they can receive the promised fund.
But, of course, the fund never existed and the scammers will simply disappear after they have extracted as much money from their victims as possible.
This ‘second-round’ version of the scam attempts to capitalize on the despair and desperation felt by some advance fee scam victims. At least a few scam victims who receive the email may believe that, if they comply, they will finally get the money they were originally promised.
The scammers no doubt bank on the fact that if a person was naive enough to fall for such a scam in the first place, he or she may well fall for one again.
If you do contact the European Debt Recovery Agent, you will be told that you must pay various processing or transaction fees before the money can be sent to you. Just as with the original scam, demands for fees will likely continue until you have no more money to send or finally realize that you are once again being conned.
If you have been a victim of an advance fee scam, sadly, you must accept that you will not get your money back and will never receive the funds that you were originally promised.
Do not believe any follow-up messages that claim that the sender can help you recover your money and finally receive the promised fund. They are just more versions of the same scam and should be deleted without reply.
An example of the scam email:
HelloI am very sorry I have to reach you through this medium. I am a member of the European Debt Recovery Unit and I am aware of your sad ordeal about your unpaid fund.
It may interest you to know that not long after the Debt Management Office (DMO) completed the merger and acquisition process of all pending payments occasion through the petition raised by the international community about their unpaid funds. I discovered that their boss connived with some top officials to divert funds approve to settle unpaid Fund (concealed funds).
The DMO has already given approval for the payment of your fund but they deliberately withheld your payment file and continue to demand fees from you through their associates from different unassigned affiliates mostly from Africa, US , Europe and Asia all in an attempt to frustrate you and enrich themselves. I wonder why you haven’t notice all this while.
You may choose to disbelieve this email as inconceivable but my doctrine does not permit such act, reason I have to open up to you to seek the right channel. Your fund was authorized to be paid to you through the DMO asset management firm with a Key Tested Reference/Claim Code Number, which was supposed to have been issued to you before now.
Upon your response to my message, I shall guide you through and provide you with details to contact the assigned affiliate who will facilitate the release of your fund, for more details.
Thanks and have a wonderful day.
Yours Faithfully,
Administrative Staff.
European Debt Recovery Agent, UK.
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*********************** LEGAL WARNING ***********************
This message is intended exclusively to this email address [email address removed] and may contain privileged or confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any read, dissemination and / or unauthorized copying is prohibited under the law. If you have received this email in error, please immediately notify electronic mail and delete it.
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