Fidelity Investments is finding itself the victim of an e-mail scam by a "William Smith," who claims to be a manager at the mutual fund giant and writes in his e-mails that he has "secretly extracted excess maximum return capital" from a Fidelity fund. "Smith" claims to have already made more than $22.4 million and is now ready to share in the spoils for a "handling fee." The scam, reminiscent of the "Letter from Nigeria, 419 Advanced Fee Fraud, is obviously identifiable as not from Fidelity, as," according to firm spokesman Adam Banker, it is "written in broken English and with bizarre claims." Still, Fido is siccing authorities on the scammer.
"It's important to realize that Fidelity Investments has done nothing wrong," says technology consultant Graham Cluley of Sophos. "They are just the unfortunate victim of their own success. The scammers have chosen to pose as them because Fidelity is a well-known and highly regard name, and they hope it will encourage victims to pursue the dodgy business opportunity."