Consumer Confidential: Great news! A relative you never heard of left you $10 million!
Stanley Silver isn't dumb. When he received a call recently informing him that he needed to pony up some cash to settle tax problems with the Internal Revenue Service, he hung up.
When he and his wife received a call saying their grandchild was in trouble and required urgent financial assistance, they hung up.
But the San Fernando, Calif., lawyer was intrigued when a fax arrived the other day from a top Canadian law firm letting him know he stood to inherit nearly $10 million.
Pay attention to how this unspools. It's a classic scam that the perpetrator - or perpetrators - has taken to a new level with phony letterhead, a phony website, identity theft and a whole lot of chutzpah.
It's also a teachable moment about why
