[blackdog]

My wife gets similar emails over royalties from her patents on chemical compounds overseas. They claim her employers have filed her patents in Malaysia, or some other country without her being compensated in accordance with their laws. She just needs to send them $3,000 USD to file the claim for $26,000,000 which has accrued since the mid 1980's.

They are really getting good. For anyone out there with patents or licenses to manufacture, watch out! The US and European Union patent databases are filled with your names, home towns, employers, etc....They are publicly accessible via internet.

[Liz]

You’d think people here would be skeptical of such phony-sounding emails.

I still remember the women profiled on TV who actually sent
$50 thousand in response to one of these Nigerian emails.
She was asked “how could you send so much money to someone you don’t even know?” Said she wanted to “help.”

There’s one born every minute.

The great CNN series “American Greed” chronicled the guy IN JAIL who scammed people out of millions. When the victims called the FBI for help-—the agent asked them,” how could you think sending money to someone in jail was a good idea?”