Dah Sing Bank Scam

By: A.C.

The letter arrived in a neat windowed DL envelope with a North Yorkshire postmark. 

It was headed the Dah Sing Bank Hong Hong.    I read about four lines and it was consigned to the shredder. 

The writer, who claimed to be a director and Chief Executive of the said bank, spun the familiar story about him having £62 Million in his bank because someone with the same surname as me had died along with his family in a tragedy, and this money was waiting to be inherited.   Otherwise it would go to the Chinese State.   He would conveniently share the proceeds when claimed.   Clearly this person did not understand ancestral Scottish names, as my distant and non –existent relative, whose alleged first name was Fedora.  

This scam has been on the go for at least two decades naming the Dah Sing Bank and you can read what the South China Morning Post investigative story here .  The names of the scammer were changed ,  but in fact the Dahsing Bank does exist, and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority have issued warnings about replying to emails, letters or going to fraudulent websites that purport to be from Dah Sing Bank.   Note the difference in spelling.

This ‘Chinese’ scam is a variation on the Nigerian 419 Scam,   and should be binned immediately.     

The scammers are probably not in Hong Kong, or indeed Asia, they are probably in the West Coast of Africa, and using one of the many UK digital letter printing facilities offering to deliver their scam mail either targeting a geographical area or a less common name. . 

Why the business doing this does not question the content or inform the Police is unknown.

So if you get a nicely printed DL letter with a UK Postmark, which references a non –existent relative who may have the first name of a wide –brimmed felt hat – you can bin the letter.   

It is important to remember that no crime is committed in the phishing expedition of unsolicited mail.  The crime begins when you decide to believe what they say and make contact, which will probably result in your money being stolen.   

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