You know when people talk about having millions and being able to live off the interest and stuff?
Well suppose you've come into £50 million of rather filthy money, you can hardly pay it into the bank. Alarm bells would start ringing big time.
You could keep it under the bed I suppose and buy everything with cash... but there'd be a shed load of it. In fifty quids it'd be a million bits of paper - but the money isn't going to be fifty quids is it... who distibutes 50 quids to shops and ATMs and the like? I'd be suprised if there's even many 20 quid notes... I suppose you wouldn't really have to live off the interest if you had that much. Although everything you bought would clearly have to be in cold hard cash and people would start to wonder where all your money was coming from.
You could anonmously donate it to a charity of your choice Robin Hood Styleeee maybe... and then watch the charity get in shit when they try and pay in the cash?
How about...send an email to randoms in Africa hoping they will be able to help?
I am Mr.pascal Green, a consulting auditor, Wibble Bank plc, London England.During the course of my auditing work with my client bank late last year, I discovered £50 million cash (in new and used notes) in a safety deposit box opened in the bank in 1998 by a Foreigner, a German, Late Mr.Andreas Schranner,who died in the AF4590 plane crash. You can check it out here. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/859479.stm
It is because of the perceived possibility of not being able to locate any next of kin known to the bank of Late Mr. Andreas Schranner as all his family all perished in the jet according to the immigration data available to the bank, that his the main reason i have contacted you to stand in as the next of kin.
I have secretly discussed this matter with a close confident attorney whom I must involve in order to assist us produce legal back-up documents which would substantiate claims/position of next of kin and also enable us have a smooth and successful transfer of the fund to any foreign bank account which you are going to nominate.
All validating and authenticating documents to enable you get this fund will be carefully worked out. We have secured from the probate registry, an order of Mandamus to locate any of the deceased beneficiaries and that makes this business 100% RiskFree.
The sharing ratio after completion of transfer will be thus: 60% forme,35% for you and 5% for expensies.Kindly indicate your interest to enable us,with your assistance, move the fund to the banks offshore clearing houses in Africa. Please note that for the purposes of confidentiality, all further correspondence should be through my Personal email: irobbedabank2006@hotmail.com
Finally you are not expected to travel down to London your presence will only be required at the offshore payment center in Africa notably Nigeria or Kenya because we intend transfering the funds to our oversea affiliate office for easy acess and to save you the stress of comming up to London.
Accept my warm regards as I await your response.
Sincerely, Pascal Green.
[Nicked and edited from an example of a 409 email given on Flashes of Panic]
It's a difficult one.
Grrr, written all this crap and just found that the BBC have already asked the same question... but got more answers, 'cause they know about laundering money than me (well more than I want to let on...) :-)