Do you also sometimes get emails from billionaires who want to gift you money? Did you ever wonder what happens when you respond? The summer slowdown in “real” emails led me on the adventurous trail of trying it out for you. Here is what happened:
On August 12, I received the following email:
I’m Ms. Maria Elisabeth Schaeffler, a German business magnate, Investor and philanthropist. I am the chairman of Wipro Limited. 25 percent of my personal wealth is spent on charity. And I also promised to give the rest of 25% away to individuals this year 2024. I have decided to donate 1,500,000.00 euros to you. If you are interested in my donation, contact me for more information.
Greetings
Managing Director Wipro Limited
Maria-Elisabeth_Schaeffler
While the email was sent from [email protected] (probably a close friend of the honorable Mrs Schaeffler), the sender name of the email said “Maria Elisabeth Schaeffler”. Mandiri Utama Finance (MUF) seems to be a Jakarta-based company. Obviously I was intrigued, because I could really use this kind of a donation. So I responded the same day.
Dear Mrs. Schaeffler,
Thank you very much for your email. I read about you in the newspaper a while ago and I feel very honored that you are contacting me.
How can I access the €1.5 million donation?
Best regards,
Thomas
I was lucky enough to receive Mrs. Schaeffler’s reply instantly and she had some quite exciting background information to share with me. This time she replied with the email address [email protected].
Hello Dear.
I appreciate you writing to me. Thanks for your response and it was well noted, I did it for a pure motive. I felt strong writing to you since you contacted me. I am Maria Elisabeth Schaeffler, a german Citizen, owners of Schaeffler Group, one of the world’s largest producers of rolling bearings. My donation of 1,500,000.00 Euro may not be much to you but i believe it will go a long way to improving your standard of living like my business money did to me, I would like you to fill the below required information and return back to me and my entire household will be glad for you to visit us after my donation gets to you. Do this on time so you can contact the payout bank for further directives to receive donation
You can see here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria-Elisabeth_Schaeffler
The intention of this email should be of great blessing to the people. At my age, I can not continue accumulating wealth without giving something. I have a net worth of over $3.1 billion Dollars. You can also read this on Forbes:
https://www.forbes.com/profile/maria-elisabeth-schaeffler-thumann/#443b4a6e19c7
I do not have much money to spend on it, so I treat myself with acts that are blessings for others. It’s my Hope that if you receive this money, it will be of great benefit to you and you can help others as well. The way you have emailed me Just like other people contact with regard to the donation .. If you know that you are ready to receive the money of 1,500,000.00Euro (1.5Million euro). Please confirm readiness by introducing yourself in detail. FILL BELOW:
1) Your full Name
2) Mobile number
3) Your Country
4) Your State
5) Your City
6) Your Address
7) your married status
8) Your age
9) your occupation
10)WhatsApp Number:
11) A scan copy of your passport
I asked for this brief information just to know who we are donating this money to and because of the Identity theft going around the internet which I have been a victim in the past, I do not want to ask you for your ID as we do not want to leave an impression in your mind that I want to steal your identity.
What would you do with this money?
After that I will send you a letter to approve the money from the Alliance Trust Bank Branch. Please my friend, that’s my personal wealth, it does not take a lot of formal procedures, and since it may seem too easy for you, this one To receive a gift, I would require you to come back after this donation, so that I can reach other needy people. I do this as a free spirit gift and I have that Contact yourself to anyone who can see my post. Opportunity comes but once ..
I will wait for your email to continue.
Be blessed.
Mrs. Maria Elisabeth Schaeffler
I obviously felt reassured by the Wikipedia and Forbes articles and was convinced of Mrs. Schaeffler’s sincere motives. So I replied quickly this morning:
Dear Mrs. Schaeffler,
Perfect, thank you! Quick question, I would like to buy a car (a red-metallic Tesla) in the coming days. Would it be possible to already receive the money this week? Or could you pay the car directly, when I give you the bank account of the car dealership?
Best wishes,
Thomas
Mrs. Schaeffler replied a just few minutes later:
No, when you receive the funds you can make payment of the car on your own.
Thank you.
Kind Regards.
Mrs. Maria Elisabeth Schaeffler
Excited about the opportunity of purchasing my fancy new car next week, I replied immediately, but I had a problem. I didn’t want to share my passport scan with Mrs. Schaeffler just yet…
Dear Mrs. Schaeffler,
Ok, perfect! Unfortunately I lost my wallet recently (incl. ID card), and I currently don’t have a passport. How about we jump on a quick Zoom call to verify my identity?
Best regards,
Thomas
This time, my new friend Mrs. Schaeffler didn’t respond immediately. But since I really wanted to sort out the donation, I offered a solution:
Dear Mrs. Schaeffler,
Or can I send you the passport scan of my wife and you send the €1.5 million to her instead? We will split the money then fairly. Since this donation was initially meant just for me, I will take €1 million and my wife will get €500k.
Best regards,
Thomas
I’m not sure what made her suspicious, maybe that I wanted to bring another person in to the conversation, but this time she (or they) didn’t reply for several hours. I didn’t want to wait any longer so I wrote her another follow-up:
Dear Mrs. Schaeffler,
My brother, who works for the police, just implied that this might be a scam. Of course I believe you, but would you mind if my brother and his colleagues shortly jump on a call with you?
Best regards,
Thomas
It seemed this reply ended my so far very promising interaction with Mrs. Schaeffler, and as it turns out I will probably not get hold of the €1.5 million which I already had made concrete plans for.
Digging a bit deeper into the topic, I learned that the same scam, also in Mrs. Schaeffler’s name, with the same amount of a donation, is going on for at least 3 years already. If I would have sent the requested information to the scammers, I would have been asked in the next step to transfer a “small” transaction fee to them in order to obtain the full donation. Afterwards I would have never heard of them again, or they would have tried to continue scamming mor money out of me.
The amount of spam and scam emails seems to have grown over the recent years. What strikes me is that most of those emails are sent from Gmail addresses and it surprises me that a tech giant like Google can’t identify and stop scam accounts in a timely manner.
