Scammers use trickery to steal your personal information and often, your money.
They try lots of methods to get a particular victim’s attention. If you look closely, a scammer’s communications often have red flags. But sometimes, the scammers are sharp. They go far to set up their game so even people who do some research can get fooled.
This story has a happy ending — the targeted victim knew it was a scam right away and was never at risk — but it’s one that’s worth sharing so you can protect yourself.
It started when Stephen Craffen, a financial planner who has been a source for NJ Advance Media in the past, received a letter in the mail from an attorney in Canada.
One look and he wanted to share his story to warn our readers.
“There’s a lot of fraud aimed at elderly people who may not be familiar with how to research things or someone who is hard up and needs money,” he said. “It plays on their emotions.”
Scammers also play on greed.
The letter was from Jonathan L. Schwartz, who claimed to be a partner at “West Law LLP, a “distinguished law firm based in Canada.”
He said a deceased woman who shared Craffen’s last name died of COVID four years ago, leaving behind a bank account valued at $10.8 million.
“Despite exhaustive efforts, we have been unable to locate any living relatives or claimants to her estate,” he wrote. “I propose an opportunity for you to be recognized as the beneficiary of this policy.”
This was the play on greed. Craffen was not declared a relative but shared the same last name. Translation: Play along and you’ll get something out of it, even if it’s not rightfully yours.
The pitch? The law firm would send some forms and secure the funds. It would give 10% to charity and Craffen and the firm would split the rest. They’s each walk away with $4.6 million.
Quite the windfall.
Schwartz reassured Craffen it was on the up and up: “This opportunity is presented without any associated risks and is compliant with legal standards.”
All Craffen had to do was email some information to the firm’s email address and Schwartz’s Gmail address, and he would complete “an affidavit of claim before a Court of Competent Jurisdiction thereby testifying to the fact that you are the next of kin.” Then he’d have Craffen named administrator of the estate and they could get their hands on the money.
That’s compliant with legal standards? Pishaw.
Craffen decided to play along, noting he was confident he had no relatives with the deceased person’s name because he’s used DNA genealogy services in the past.
The form asked for his name, address, phone, nationality, occupation, marital status and age.
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Craffen supplied some fake information, and in response, he received a bunch of documents that we’re pretty sure are all phonies.
We reached out to a dozen Canadian officials to see if we could get some answers, as well as to the financial institutions that were supposedly involved.
In the meantime, we spent 10 minutes — maybe 12? — with some quick checks online.
Jonathan Schwartz is not an uncommon name, but the Canada Bar Association lists not a single attorney by that name. It also doesn’t list the law firm.
The judge who signed and approved Craffen’s claim, per the documents, is indeed a real Canadian judge. We asked officials in Canada if the paperwork was authentic.
“I can advise that Justice Penny retired from the Superior Court of Justice, effective April 5, 2025,” an official said.
Craffen’s documents were dated in May.
Craffen also received a copy of the death certificate. It did look a lot like ones posted online, but the Canadian officials who could verify if the death certificate was authentic or a fake also didn’t respond.
We looked further. Ontario has a deal with Ancestry.com where people can look up births and deaths. We did, and the name and date of death given by the scammer was not found.
Another document the alleged attorney supplied was an insurance policy showing a $10.8 million benefit. That was funny because the attorney’s letter said the money was in a bank account. In any case, the insurance company confirmed to Bamboozled it was a phony.
Craffen also put on his detective’s hat. He checked out the law firm’s website. It was registered by someone in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia less than a year ago.
He Googled the address where the deceased woman supposedly lived. It’s an assisted living facility.
Google Street View also showed Craffen the attorney’s address was a storefront for a discount store, with a psychic on one side and a check-cashing shop on the other.
And finally, Craffen looked online and found that the name used for a banking official was indeed a real person who serves on the bank’s board of directors. The bank did not respond to requests for comment, but we’re pretty confident the board member’s name was just hijacked and used to fool anyone who looked it up.
“Astoundingly well thought out fraud,” Craffen said.
Indeed. But that’s the point. Crooks will sometimes do a little homework, find and use some bits of real information, hoping it’s enough to convince a potential victim that a come-on is for real.
So if you ever receive something that’s too good to be true, of course it probably is. But if you’re holding out a little hope, don’t jump quickly. Do a little research, like we did, and if something looks legit, research even more. Or send us an email at KPriceMueller@NJAdvanceMedia.com.
We sent an email to the alleged attorney to see if he could substantiate his claims, verify his own identity or explain some of the things we found.
No shock. There was no response.
Stay safe, Jersey.
Stories by Karin Price Mueller
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Karin Price Mueller may be reached at KPriceMueller@NJAdvanceMedia.com. Follow her on X at @KPMueller.