Hello and thank you for your question, which I will be happy to assist you with.

This certainly sounds like a scam. Such types of scams, also known as ‘advance-fee fraud’ are unfortunately extremely common these days and many unsuspecting victims fall for them.

The best way to spot these is by identifying certain 'red flags' that are almost always present. The following are the most common hallmarks of such scams:

• You are contacted, usually out of the blue and promised a large return or reward. You are unlikely to have ever heard of or been involved with the persons/organisations concerned. However, remember that no one just gives money away, especially of that amount.
• Before the reward materializes, you are asked to pay a sum of money for various reasons, usually as a clearance fee, administrative costs, taxes, etc. This is the advance-fee part of the scam and often such payments are never required in the circumstances, or even by law. I know you have not been asked to o this yet but that does not mean it won't happen. I agree that what they have asked to do so far is unusual but until you actually received the cleared money in your account they may still make requests and sometimes they come in at the last minute. You could try and go along with them to see how far they take it before something like that comes up
• Once the money has been sent, the fraudster either stops all contact and the reward never materializes, or they return and ask for further payments due to new unsuspected issues that have arisen since the last payment. Unfortunately, many victims fall for this trick again and continue to send payments until they have realised this is a scam, when it is often too late.

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