Sep 8, 2014

Yeah, I am going to get a high powered, high paying job in the 2nd largest bank in Hong Kong! Or not?

One fine day, I received an invitation for a request for connection at LinkedIn.


Wow. Looks like a big shot from Hong Kong based Hang Seng wanted to make an acquaintance with me! Does she by chance is entranced by my sterling resume, superior writing skills and wanted to offer me a high position job in one of the biggest banks in Hong Kong?

Or she is memorized by my good looks and wanted to be a "friend"?



Suspected Love Scam. Seems like a couple of my "handsome" friends got this message too.


Invitation gladly accepted!

2 days later



 My SCAM alert radar is blaring non-stop on reading this email. Urgent matters from strangers normally do not end well. So I turn to trusty Google and see if this person exists or not.


 This is from Hang Seng bank website. The lady does exist and do look legit. However, we all know too well how it is simple to set up a fake social media account and download a photo from the public domain and pretend it's that person. After all, we have heard of stories of man impersonating as a beautiful woman on facebook. I need to dig further.

Aha! I found a thread on the LinkIn community forum on complaints of spam contacts. Here is what some of the participants have posted after replying to a similar mail.

Thanks so much for replying to my email address, i know this will come as a surprise to you but let me formally introduce myself to you.I am Ms Irene LEE Yun Lien Non-executive Director at the Hang Seng Bank Plc. I am contacting you concerning an abandoned sum of $22,500,000.00 USD. In June 2004, A customer called Fernando Lopez a foreign contractor with Royal Dutch Plc came to our bank for business discussions and investment, As the officer in charge of his transaction then, I encouraged him to consider various growth of funds with prime ratings. Then he invested Nineteen Million Five Hundred Thousand United State Dollars only. Based on my advice, we were able to spin the initial deposit with profit and interest to 22.5 million U.S Dollars. After few months; My bank (Hang Seng) sent several notice to him without response and unfortunately, my client died in a car crash along with his nuclear family at France while on sabbatical in the summer of 2008, may their soul rest in peace. He died without leaving a Will and several efforts were made to find his extended family through your embassy without success. Because of the sensitive nature of private banking, most customers don't nominate next of kin in their investment, also usually in most cases leave their WILLS in our care, in this case; our now deceased client died in-testate.

It is quite clear now that our dear client died with no known or identifiable family member. According to practice, the Private banking sector will by the end of this year broadcast a request for statement of claim to Hang Seng Bank Ltd, failing to receive viable claims they will probably revert the deposit to the Management of Hang Seng Bank Ltd. This will result the money entering the Hang Seng accounting system and the portfolio will be out of my hands and out of the private banking division. What bothers me most is that according to the laws of my country at the expiration of Ten {10} years the funds will revert to the ownership of the Hong Kong Government if nobody applies to claim the funds.

Now, I am prepared to give the necessary details to you as the closest surviving relation of our deceased customer (Fernando Lopez). I am also proposing that after a successful execution of the business deal, the funds will be shared in the ratio 40/60. You will get 40% and I will be entitled to 60% as the initiator of the deal. You know that I must have done my home work already before contacting you. Although the project is capital intensive, I know I will be able to pull it through following proper banking and legal Channels with your assistance at your end. I will tidy up the legal aspect with the assistance of a lawyer who will prepare all the documents that will be needed to transfer the money from Hong Kong to your country. Once more, I ask that if you find no interest in this project that you should discard this mail and forget I ever contacted you, I ask that you do not be vindictive and destructive; do not destroy my career. Opportunities like this only comes once in a lifetime. I am a family woman and this is an opportunity for me to give my family the best in life. I would want you to think about this and let me know your decision. If you give me a positive response, I will give you the relevant INFORMATION for the successful transfer of these funds and we both enjoy it in peace.

If you give me positive signals on my email: msireneleehk@gmail.com, I will initiate this process towards a conclusion. I wish to inform you that should you not contact me via official Channels else I will deny knowing you and about this project. You can also check on my biography from this link as well http://bank.hangseng.com/1/2/about-us/directors-organisation/board-of-directors#irenelee you can also call our official line +852-2822-0228 but do not talk about this transaction or I may deny knowing you, when you call? Ask of Ms Irene LEE Yun Lien (Hang Seng Bank) and if I am on seat, then your call shall be transfer to me, what I will want you to do is to abolish the call before I talk because my official line are not secured means to reach me bearing in mind, the nature of this transaction, because they are periodically monitored to assess our level of customer care in line with our Total Quality Management.

I await your response.


Wow. I can tick off the number of criminal offenses that a senior management of a major bank will breach by facilitating this transaction, and who is stupid enough to put it down in writing and send it to a stranger even if they wish to facilitate such a transaction, when you are in the highly regulated financial industry. 

This is obviously a scam. The question is, should I reply to this scammer and see where does the email leads to? Maybe ask her out for a date?

What should I do!??!  

17 comments:

  1. I am getting exactly what you have got, same linkedin profile,same e-mail text and wondering Ms Irene Lee have heard of anything or willing to compensate our time of searching her profile and later on realize this is just a SPAM ?

    ReplyDelete
  2. I got the same email as listed here; Ms Irene Lee may be fake. This is clearly a spam. Don't reply to her any more.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Exactly the same... such a shame LinkedIn does not identify these profiles...

    ReplyDelete
  4. I get the same invitation from her. The only thing different is her email address. I don't think I will reply her email.

    ReplyDelete
  5. if you have time, have some fun contacting n tracing "her" using a make - shift email account. if you dont, just forward the scam mails to linked in and perhaps hangseng bank.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I'm glad to have discovered this forum. I had the same red-flags go up when I got the invitation and email today. My message stated: "How are you and your family? Hope everything is fine. I am connecting you because i have a very Lucrative and Life Changing Business Proposal for you

    This is my email: ms.ireneyunlee@gmail.com

    I hope to hear from you soon

    Regard

    Ms Irene Lee Yun Lien"


    Why would legitimate bank business occur through personal email? It wouldn't. Red flag.

    Thanks for posting this.

    ReplyDelete
  7. perhaps you could forward this post to the bank for them to do something to clear their director's name.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I got the same "offer" in terms of "Fernando Nguyen" instead of "Fernando Lopez" via Linkedin and by "Anna Nghia Tran". When I asked for a privat telephone number, the "person" behind that fake profile is keeping quiet until today. However I am wondering why Linkedin does not block or delete that fake social group since they can get in touch to Hang Seng Bank and double check quickly who or which organisation is actually behind it.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I am very reluctant to accept connection requests these days, especially from virtual strangers. Not only are you exposing yourself to potential scams, you are also releasing extremely important information to strangers who can make use of those information for various nefarious schemes. I do not seem to have much problems with my other social media accounts. If Link'In do not do anything about it, it will be a dent to their reputation in the long term.

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  10. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  11. She sent me the same invitation with this e-mail (ymsirenelee@qq.com). She is a fake.-

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  12. I got the same invitation and proposal ))

    irenelee@financier.com

    ReplyDelete
  13. I'm currently seeing how far I can push the scammer; so far I've acquiesced to her requests (albeit slowly, ineptly, and in a manner that suggests I'm a rich and slightly dim easy target, and of course without revealing any actual information), and hopefully at some point I'll be able to get more of a clue as to where this is originating from...

    ReplyDelete
  14. Ms Irene LEE Yun Lien

    (no subject)

    Ms Irene LEE Yun Lien

    April 10, 2015, 11:50 AM
    Hello Ivanov,

    I'm Irene, I have carefully looked into your profile and country and I can see you fit into an opportunity we can discuss, Kindly send me an email to ms.irenelee.yunlien@msn.com lets see if you can handle this in your country.

    Kind regards,

    Irene.



    This is what I got just right now.. :( I believe is a SCAMMER

    ReplyDelete
  15. 100% SCAM - i got the same email

    ReplyDelete
  16. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  17. Even until now, i got the email. Can Linkedin do something...@@''

    ReplyDelete

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