A letter promising a share of a $10 million unclaimed estate showed up in veteran Chicago investigative journalist Phil Rogers' mailbox, claiming to come from a Canadian law firm and to concern a deceased woman named Maria Rogers. There was just one problem for the scammers: they had picked an investigative journalist.
A Familiar Scam With a New Twist
The letter, signed by a man calling himself Richard Kluck who claimed to be a partner at a Canadian law firm, told Rogers that a woman named Maria Rogers had died roughly four years earlier from COVID-19 complications and left behind an unclaimed permanent life insurance policy. According to NBC 5 Chicago, the letter offered to recognize Rogers as a beneficiary and proposed that he split the estate proceeds with Kluck, warning that the money would otherwise be swallowed up by an unclaimed property division. Rogers, a veteran investigative reporter who won a Peabody Award in 2016 for his coverage of the Laquan McDonald police shooting before his 2026 induction into the Chicago Silver Circle, according to the Chicago Silver Circle, immediately recognized the pitch for what it was.
“You could say they chose the wrong guy here,” Rogers said, according to the station's report, adding that advance fees paid into these schemes are typically never refunded once a victim sends money.
Digging Into the Digital Paper Trail
NBC 5 Responds teamed up with Rogers to trace the operation, and what they found was a surprisingly sophisticated front. The purported Canadian law firm had a detailed website, but the site's geography was a tangle of confused references mixing up Ottawa, Canada, with locations in the United Kingdom. Domain records showed the site had been registered since April 2026 to an English-language certification center in the United Kingdom, per the same account, rather than to any actual law office.
A property manager at the firm's listed business address confirmed that no company called Kluck Partners was ever a tenant there, and phone calls placed to numbers on the website went unanswered or were never returned. A provincial law society also reported that no Richard Kluck was licensed to practice law in Ontario. Even the smiling headshot used to represent the fictional attorney turned out to be a stock photograph, reused across the internet under different names and personas and listed on multiple stock image websites as a generic smiling businessman with no real connection to the scheme.
One Scam Among Many: A North Carolina Postmark
NBC 5 Responds found nearly identical scam letters circulating online, all sharing the same story, the same logo and the same estate-splitting offer, often appearing to borrow the real identities of licensed Canadian attorneys. Rogers noted that the sheer cost of mailing out so many personalized letters raised questions about how often the scam actually works on its intended victims. Despite being supposedly sent from Canada, the letter addressed to Rogers carried a postmark from North Carolina, a mismatch that investigators flagged as a telltale warning sign.
The scheme fits a well-documented and recurring pattern. In September 2020, the real Ontario-based Miskin Law Professional Corporation reported that scammers had copied its official website and faxed letters offering to help claim a fake US$10 million estate for a 45% fee under the name of a genuine Canadian attorney, according to a CNW Group release.
Why These Scams Persist
The Rogers scheme paired a purported Canadian law firm and website with a mailed inheritance pitch tied to a supposed life insurance policy.
The letter sent to Rogers used an inheritance pitch: a supposed distant relative had left behind an unclaimed estate, and the recipient was offered a share.
How to Spot the Next Fake Letter
In a pitch like Rogers received, a request for upfront fees before an inheritance is released should be treated as a red flag. Consumers are also urged to verify contact information through independent official sources rather than trusting the phone numbers or addresses printed on an unsolicited letter, and to check postmarks for inconsistencies, such as a Canadian return address paired with a U.S. postmark. Consumers can contact the Law Society of Ontario to ask whether a person is licensed to practice law. As Rogers' case shows, an unexpected letter promising millions from a stranger should trigger alarm bells long before anyone reaches for a checkbook.
