419 scam: Mark Harris <mharris@deville.com.br> (no subject)

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"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam

The so-called "419" scam is a type of fraud dominated by criminals from Nigeria and other countries in Africa. Victims of the scam are promised a large amount of money, such as a lottery prize, inheritance, money sitting in some bank account, etc.

Victims never receive this non-existent fortune but are tricked into sending their money to the criminals, who remain anonymous. They hide their real identity and location by using fake names and fake postal addresses as well as communicating via anonymous free email accounts and mobile phones.

Keep in mind that scammers DO NOT use their real names when defrauding people.
The criminals either abuse names of real people or companies or invent names or addresses.
Any real people or companies mentioned below have NO CONNECTION to the scammers!

Read more about such scams here or in our 419 FAQ. Use the Scam-O-Matic to verify suspect emails.

Click here to report a problem with this page.

Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
This email uses a separate reply address that is different from the sender address. Spammers use this to get replies even when the original spam sending accounts have been shut down. Also, sometimes the sender addresses are legitimate looking but fake and only the reply address is actually an email account controlled by the scammers.
The following fake company names, fake addresses, non-existent institutions/documents or other details have appeared in scams before:
- "uk national lottery" (can only win this lottery if you bought a ticket)
The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- ",000,000" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
- "% will be for you" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
- "deadline" (scammers rush victims so they don't have time to think properly)
- "is 100% risk free" (almost true for the criminal trying to scam you - arrests of online criminals are rare)
This email message is a fake lottery scam. Consider the following facts about real lotteries:
1. They don't notify winners by email.
2. You can't win without first buying a lottery ticket.
3. They don't randomly select email addresses to award prizes to.
4. They don't use free email accounts (Yahoo, Hotmail, etc) to communicate with you.
5. They don't tell you to call a mobile phone number.
6. They don't tell you to keep your winnings secret.
7. They will never ask a winner to pay any fees to receive a prize!
This email lists free webmail addresses. Use of such addresses is typical for scams. Lotteries, banks and any but the smallest of companies do not normally use such addresses. Criminals use them to anonymously send and receive email at Internet cafes.
- mharris1963@hotmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)

Fraud email example:

From: Mark Harris <mharris@deville.com.br>
Reply-To: mharris1963@hotmail.com
Date: Mon, 16 Dec 2013 19:20:59 -0200
Subject: (no subject)

--
Hello!,

Good day to you. I am Mark Harris; I am an Executive Officer with Camelot
Group Plc.; the licensed operator of the UK National Lottery. I wish to use
this medium to seek your consent and cooperation in the context stated
below believing that you will give my request/ proposal adequate and urgent
attention.

There is an unclaimed prize fund of the total sum of Â£1,000,000(One
Million, Great Britain pounds sterling) in my company.(The National
Lottery).The winner of the prize has failed to come forward for the claim
of his/her prize and most importantly, there is a claim deadline of 180
days((six months) for the claim of any winning prize and after this
deadline, if the prize is not claimed, It will be forfeited by the winner
and remitted to the UK government treasury.

Please note that, there have been some cases like this in the past were
prizes were forfeited because they were not claimed before the 180 days
claim deadline. Some of this unclaimed prizes was aired on BBC news and the
UK lottery post news. You can check the links below to see and understand
what I am talking about.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/south_yorkshire/4573760.stm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-18550580

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-18766367

http://www.lotterypost.com/news/104653.htm

The reasons why some winners fail to claim their prizes may be one or all
of the following:

1. The winner may have accidentally thrown away the tickets and lost track
of the winning ticket number and other vital information as regards the
lucky win.
2. Some winners do not check their tickets properly.
3 The winner may not be aware of the victory.
4. The winner may have died.
5. The National Lottery does not advice winners about their winning prize
via email notification; so most winners may not be aware that they won in
the draws.

In view of the above, I hereby seek your consent to cooperate with me so
that I can provide you the winning information that won the prize to enable
you apply for the claim of the fund as the winner. Please note that this
can be achievable because, as an Executive Officer of my company, I have
access to all the information pertaining to this winning prize which I will
communicate to you in due course to enable you claim this funds since the
winner of the funds has failed come for the claim. There is total assurance
that he/she will not come for it because every vigilant winner will be
anxious to know the outcome of a lottery draw even before the results are
released.
I will furnish you with the necessary modalities of the transaction as
soon as I receive an acknowledgement of your acceptance. I assure you that
this transaction is 100% risk free; it will be executed under a legitimate
arrangement that will protect you from any breach of the law as I have
strategized a perfect plan to enable us succeed and to ensure we claim this
fund without any trace in the future. Once the prize fund of Â£5,655,980 is
paid to you, Our mode of sharing will be on a 50......... 50 basis. i.e.
50% will be for me while the remaining 50% will be for you.

I look forward to your quick response while thanking you for your
anticipated co-operation.

Best regards,
Mark Harris.
Email: mharris1963@hotmail.com

Anti-fraud resources:

What can you do when you receive 419 spam