(And it has nothing to do with uranium!)

Received in the mail today:

ATTN: THE PRESIDENT/CEO:

I humbly crave your indulgence in sending you this email and should it not meet your business or personal ethics, please accept my apologies in advance.

My name is John Varley, the Finance Director and the Barclays Group with head office at 54 Lombard Street, London EC3P 3AH

I am writing this letter to solicit your support and assistance to carry out a project in one of our numerous branches where lying in an in-active account is the sum of $30,000,000 (Thirty Million United States Dollars) belonging to a foreign customer by name Dr. Michael Woods who died with his wife and two kids in a ghastly car crash while on vacation in the Caribbean Islands .

Since he died the Bank has been expecting his next of kin to come forward for necessary actions in respect to funds claiming.

Unfortunately,after investigations we found out that he has no family members who are aware of the existence of such an amount and as such have decided to do business with you,alongside the concerned officials here in the bank.

You stand in as the next of kin of late Dr. Michael Woods,and then the money will be released to you,after the due processes have been followed.

Obviously we do not want this money to go into the Bank Treasury because the banking law and guideline stipulates that if such money remains unclaimed for a period of 5 years the money will be transferred into the Banks Treasury as an unclaimed debt.

For your partictipation in the business, 20% of the funds will be yours, 75% will be ours,while 5% will be for any expenses incurred during the transaction.

Please reach me at the above electronic mail address,if willing to do business with me.

Best Regards,

John Varley.

DISCLAIMER: This message contains confidential information and is intended only for specified email addressee. If you are not the named addressee you should not disseminate, distribute or copy this e-mail. The sender therefore does not accept liability for any errors or omissions in the contents of this message, which arise as a result of e-mail transmission. Please note that we reserve the right to monitor and read any emails sent and received by the Barclays group under the Telecommunications (Lawful Business Practice) (Interception of Communications) Regulations 2000.

Several nice touches there. There's a famous Barclay's Bank. "John Varley" is a terrific science fiction writer who only produces a book every few years. "Michael Woods" is a film and TV actor. The disclaimer uses standard text found on a lot of business correspondence. And they figured out how to turn off capslock.

The scam's evolving and getting a bit more sophisticated.