Random letter arrived saying dad is a beneficiary to someone we've never heard of

[user1478639495]

has anyone else had this and could advise? dad received a letter this week saying that he is entitled to part of a ladies estate, him and his brother except his brother passed earlier this year. We haven't heard of this woman's name before, I have googled the solicitors who sent the letter an all looks legit, I've been in touch via email and again everything seems to be ok BUT we have been caught with a scam before and are extremely nervous of things like this, the other issue is we have 6 weeks to act but the letter arrived almost 3 weeks after it was sent so we are already short on time. They want bank details (acc no sort code) and form of ID.

Part of me thinks well how else would you notify you and what more can I do to check it's legit? the other part of me is thinking its so random its got to be a scam?

Advice stories welcome tia

I think asking for bank details is suspicious.
I agree with everyone else: call the number on their actual website and ask to speak to the person handling the case.

I've kind of experiences the other side to this. I purchased a home where the previous owner had dies. He was a bit of a hermit by all accounts and died leaving no will and no relative.s His whole estate was managed by a firm of heir hunters on behalf of the government effectively.

Apparently it took years - but eventually the firm found a distance relative - and the whole estate that was many thousands went to a lady whom had never heard of the guy who died. So it definitely does happen although i suspect rarely.

Agree with all the other posts to check the solicitors with appropriate authorities - and don't phone or use any email within the letter - use a number you've got from their website. The time limit is a bit of a red flag - but these estates do eventually get paid to the government if no one "claims" them

Same as my dad - he got a cheque, it was from a distant relative. It was about £100, but that was after any fees and he wasn’t expecting it so a nice surprise.
As he used to work for a bank and asked for a cheque I would suggest asking for a cheque and if they send more than expected and ask you to transfer the difference back, assume a scam and ask the bank for advice before doing anything

I don't think the OP states anywhere that the solicitors involved are heir hunters?

About 15 years ago I came home from the office to find an important looking letter from a solicitor's firm, saying I had been left money by someone I still don't remember ever meeting. She had been a friend of my mother's, and because my mum had died before her, she had left money to me in mum's memory.

They should be wanting to confirm his identity before sending out money. As pp have said, Google the solicitors number and speak to them. I'd tread very carefully. Doesn't mean it isn't legit but you are absolutely right to be cautious

Time pressure - 6 weeks I would say 100% is a scam. There's no reason why this would be a time pressure thing, wills and estates tend to plod on for months.

Just pointing out that if heir hunters didn’t exist, to trace any possible relatives who might be beneficiaries, the money would go to the government.

What often amazed me, in those Heir Hunter programmes, was the number of people with fairly substantial assets, at least a house - who didn’t make wills - despite being in e.g.their 80s and having very good friends or neighbours who’d been helping them a lot for the past 20 years! - but instead the money went to relatives who had never even been aware of that person’s existence.

Ring them and tell them you want to come into their offices with the ID.

If you're worried about giving account details you could ask for a cheque. If their office isn't a million miles away you could ask to pop in with the passport for copying there. Sounds like it's probably okay to me (for what it's worth). Best wishes!

from my experience, that "confirming the ID" will come much further down the line and will not involve bank details until and unless there is money due. Google is NOT your friend here. They will just search the internet for the named solicitor and if that is a fake too then contacting them will not help. As has been said ANYONE can set up a convincing website and Google won't know that its not a real one.

I recently got a small, expected inheritance from a distant relative. This was how it was organised - they emailed me and I sent a copy of a back statement and my passport. They then set up a time for a zoom call, where they again checked my passport next to my face, and the bank statement again.

BUT, if I had wanted to I could have gone to the solicitors' in person. I would do as others advise and call the main office on a number you find yourself.

They want bank details (acc no sort code) and form of ID.

Is that no sort code wanted/asked for or have you missed out a comma after acc no?

Why would they want bank details straight away? Surely the first thing is confirming the identity of the person they are seeking. Bank details should come later! And asking for the account number not the sort code is odd. I think once they have the account number the next thing will be a casual phone call “ Sorry, we don’t seem to have your sort code! Oh that’s great, thanks, we’ll be in touch once we have drained your accounts”

You are right to take care. My mother had a Solicitors letter saying she had been left some money. I’d never heard of the family before, but turns out mum knew them and had even visited them as a child. They were the daughters of her grandmothers sister. In these cases the rules are to go back to the grandparents of the deceased and work down to the grandchildren - my mother and her cousins. Mum got quite a lot of money, but it took a long time to prove who was who, and we had to provide various bmd certificates to prove who mum was and to prove her relationship. Altogether it took both 3 years, though there was a complication ( two of the distant cousins turned out to be illegitimate with a different father , which ruled them out. It was a nasty shock to them as both were in their 90s and hadn’t known. The other 5 cousins all agreed to make them an ex gratia payment from their share instead, so they did get something and apparently it made a big difference to their remaining lives).

it’s that time limit that rings the alarm bells. Definitely check that that firm is legitimate and I’d not rely on any website either. Scammers aren’t above setting up a fake website ( I was nearly caught by this myself when being scammed for something else - but it didn’t have any photos or bios of staff, or clear address and was just very iffy when looked at clearly). it’s best to check with the Law Society.

Just ring them, we had to do this in the good old days, saves a lot of time and you can get straight to the point. Hope it's thousands of pounds for him x

Your post reminded me of a childless aunt’s will - she’d left everything to be shared equally between 11 nieces and nephews. And if any had died before she did, their share was to go to any children - ‘…whether natural or adopted, legitimate or illegitimate’ - that last bit almost certainly added by her solicitor to make it watertight.

This happened to my ex his dad’s cousin (who no one knew of) passed and heir hunters tracked them down. My ex his sister & brother got the money from the sale of his house.

Have you read how many posters have come on here to say this legitimately happened to them? Doesn’t mean this isn’t a scam, because it might be - but it’s not quite as clear cut. I also think that it’s slightly less likely if it were a letter in the post as surely scammers don’t want to spend a ton of money on posting letters out to every single person they are trying to scam - they’d just email to keep costs to a minimum. It sounds like they knew her fathers name, his brothers name and his correct address. On the chance this is genuine, it’s absolutely worth a bit of investigating - someone further up said about finding out in a similar way they were entitled to a share of a couple of million. If they’d ignored it they’d have been kicking themselves later!

Obviously caution is advised, but there are ways to investigate this before giving any details for sure.

They’ve asked for the sort code - there should be a comma after “no” which is short for number in this case.

Yes, obviously OP is welcome to investigate for herself using the advice by previous posters. And yes of course, people are contacted for random inheritances but to request bank details off the bat?! Really? It's not hard to find out a name and address online so that's hardly any meaningful indication of anything...checking land registry is one way for example. It's also known that scammers trawl message boards like mumsnet and reddit etc purporting similar stories to increase their appearance of legitimacy. Caution absolutely advised.

How do you know, the OP hasn't even tried to call the solicitors yet as far as she's said.

If you've ever seen heir hunters this happens all the time with genuine legacies

If course it might be a scam but it why wouldn't you investigate first. Perfectly possible without giving any more info than you are comfortable to give

It could be a scam of course but this happened to my mum and she did eventually end up with a share of the estate.

My mum and cousins were contacted when an aunt had seemingly died with no know heirs. Unfortunately they eventually found her son. Wouldn’t have been much with all the cousins in the mix. However pressure to give bank details- be wary

No I get that fake websites could be set up and they can be very convincing, it's all so tricky now. What else could someone do in this position apart from go to the solicitors providing they are able? I had to verify who I was before I handed over bank details etc but I wasn't concerned as I knew I was to be a beneficiary when the time came. It's difficult

All the solicitor's advice you've been given is spot on. You could also check on an ancestry web site it might give some clues. It may be worth looking at the Bonne Vacantia government list of unclaimed estates.
Don't part with any bank or private details at this stage.