This may be a first on this stack: a question posted under “scams” that turns out to NOT be a scam!

@s3raph86 FWIW, I still think it's a scam. I'm not buying that a trade union official had all that money and also had no will.

@TerryCarmen The TU official did have a will. He left everything to his wife. What he didn't do, apparently, was let his wife have anything to do with managing money while he was still alive, so when he was gone she was clueless.

Just to be risk-adverse, it would be a good idea to call the bank that issued the check to confirm availability of funds.

@axsvl77 It's hardly worth the bother of fighting your way through the bank's call center (staffed by people from whichever third world company bid the lowest price for the job!) when the standard cheque clearance time for cheques between two UK banks is now "by the end of the next working day" if you use the fastest option (i.e. using a scanned image of the cheque instead of moving physical bits of paper around).

@alephzero Are there fees for bounced cheques in the UK? Here they can be pretty steep.

@axsvl77 There are charges for writing a cheque that bounces because of insufficient funds. There is no charge for attempting to pay one in, unless you withdraw the money that you don't have and your account becomes overdrawn.

@alephzero The banks get us in both directions here in the states.

@s3raph86: Secretly, it's a meta-scam; a story about a scammy scenario that turns out not to be a scam, thereby making people on this site more credulous in the face of a future scam. Diabolical!

"So far as I'm concerned, she can go jump in a lake - I don't "do charity". She had 14 years to persuade Mary Smith to make the will she wanted, and failed - so that's not my problem!" - ah, you had me rooting for you right up until that statement. IMO it doesn't add anything to of value and comes across as just a little harsh. Just sayin'

@s3raph86 Not a first. There have been other "is this a scam" questions with "no" answers before.

@shoover With no children, I suspect he was confident that there wouldn't be any trouble if she passed as everything would just be his. Probably most everything was in his name only to begin with if she had nothing to do with any of it. A little unusual, sure, but probably nothing to worry about.

@StephenByrne : whether the OP wants to gift money to a complete stranger, is completely the OP's choice, and we shouldn't be the judges in that matter. Why don't you send some of your money to that woman if her plight is so sympathetic to you? Charity should be voluntary, otherwise we wouldn't call it charity.

@vsz - indeed. I was only pointing out that imo this doesn't add anything to the answer. Personally I'm delighted for the OP and I hope this isn't a scam. But the OP doesn't know this "friend" and has - in my opinion - made a harsh judgement, by assuming that they are looking for this money in the first place. For all we know, the "other family member" who sent the letter is trying to get more for themselves...Don't know about you but I don't like the idea of a stranger wishing I would go jump in a lake, based on an assumption about my motives. but maybe that's just me :)

@vsz I don't judge the OP for not wanting to give the money to a stranger either, but I definitely judge him for his comments regarding her jumping in a lake. That is harsh, considering he knows nothing about her. That sentence leaps out of this page, and leaves me a little uncomfortable.

@vsz Actually, my "jump in a lake" reaction was pretty much spot on - see the update above. It seems the author of the third letter had already been slapped down by the lawyers involved in the case before the third letter was sent.

@shoover As well as what jpmc26 says, many people "of a certain age" (as the wife would have been) have an almost superstitious dislike of wills ("If I write a will, it will mean I'm going to die soon") so it's not too surprising (especially if the husband had previously handled all financial matters).

I call B/S. I bet it STILL turns out to be some sort of scam!

@s3raph86 money.stackexchange.com/questions/95847/… , money.stackexchange.com/questions/56459/… ... not a first, but definitely rare. :)

How much was it? :)