The Harris Family @ Home

I’m a Millionaire!

Filed under: General — KevinHarris July 31, 2006 @ 1:43 pm

I got an interesting email from my father recently. It was so good (and family related) that I just had to share it with you.

From: Hal & Marie Harris
Subject: Fwd: ATTENTION Hal ( About James Harris )Jim ‘n Lucy, (cc’s to some others)

I just had to share this one with you. In checking email, the first thing I do is check for email that shows a name that I do not recognize. . .then I look at the subject line. If I also do not recognize that, it goes straight to the trash pile. Well, this one is from someone whose name I do not recognize. . .but, the subject. . .now that’s another story. I know “Hal” and I know “James Harris”. Well, you will have to read it, and then see my comments below that:

Chris Mark wrote:
Date: Fri, 28 Jul 2006 11:47:42 -0700 (PDT)
From: Chris Mark
Subject: ATTENTION Hal ( About James Harris )

FROM THE DESK OF Chris A Mark
SENIOR PARTNER Rhodewestlockers
Law Firm,Suite D4738,Holograms
Suites,4855 Copthal Avenue.City
London, EC4567BN GB
Tel:+44-704-011-2489
Fax:+44-870-068-7881

Dear Hal,
Compliments of the day to you.I must solicit your
confidentiality and assure you that I am contacting
you in good faith and this proposal will be of mutual
benefit. I am Mr.Chris Mark(Esq.),a legal
practitioner.My client,late Mr.James Harris,who died
with his entire family in a fatal accident,sparing
none of their lives, some years ago.

Before his death, I assisted him in the deposit of
8million pounds with a Security Company for
safekeeping. The funds have remained unclaimed since
his death, and such unclaimed funds are appropriated
and returned to the treasury as a matter of
policy.Considering the lack of success in my bid to
locate any of his relatives for over a year now, I
hereby solicit your consent to enable me present you
as the Next of Kin to my deceased client.

I am contacting you for two reasons. Firstly, you both
have the same last name, which makes the claim most
credible. Secondly, I strongly believe that the
Security Company does not deserve to inherit the
funds. These reasons led to my resolve to claim the
funds, which was why I contacted you.

With your permission, I will proceed to establish you
as the next of kin/Beneficiary to my late client. As
soon as this is done, you will then give instructions
to the Security Company, to transfer the deposited
funds into another account you will provide, after
which we shall then share the funds upon agreed terms.

When I receive your response, I will provide you with
further details.
Regards
Chris Mark(Esq)

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
HAL’S COMMENTS
. . .”Fatal accident”?? I just saw them a few weeks ago alive and well. . .and I was not even notified. . .???

. . . “some years ago” Oh, yes, now I remember the family tree. There are SEVERAL “James Harrises” in our family. Maybe there are still some lurking around Great Britain. . .

. . .”8 million pounds”. . .isn’t that something like 20 million dollars??? Now, I know, he surely has the wrong Harris family.

. . .”next of kin”??? Sure, for 8 million pounds, why not?

… .”give instructions to the Security Company, to transfer the deposited
funds into another account you will provide.” . . .Hey, why go through all of this? hold out your cut and just put the rest of into a cashier’s check (or cheque if you prefer). That’ll work for me just fine!!

. . .Can you imagine someone falling for this? It happens! B-T-W, Jim, just because I won’t comply to this, don’t try emailing him back yourself. Remember, you’re dead!!

I was teaching SS this morning and the lesson was on “Wealth” and some of the greed, envy and corruptions that go with it. This made a fine illustration.

Hope you’re all doing well.
Love,
Hal

Of course I have seen emails like this before (haven’t we all). But I had never seen one with family members’ names in it like this.

Now, you probably have figured this out. But just in case you haven’t, I’ll say it anyway.

You should NEVER fall for this type of scam. And that’s exactly what it is, a scam. Yet people get greedy and fall for this kind of thing every day. Just don’t be one of them.

By the way, while I’m at it, I may as well share with you the solution I use to filter about 98% of all my spam email into the trash bin on my computer.

Popfile is the program I’m talking about. I have used it exclusively for several years and it maintains about 98% accuracy for sorting my mail, including spam, into the appropriate folders. As a matter of fact, I would have missed this email because it had been sorted into my trash bin. The only reason I found it was because I decided to go in and reclassify a few emails that had been sorted incorrectly. It had keyed on some of the phrases in this email and identified it as spam. Which really meant that it was doing it’s job correctly since there was some spam included. ;)

Now, a word of warning. If your using Yahoo or Hotmail this program won’t work for you. It is meant to be run on your local system so that it can scan your mail as it is downloaded to you PC. And it can be a little bit persnickety to setup, but it’s worth the effort.
-kev

4 Comments »

  1. Hello, I recently received yet another of these phoney emails, and finally decided to respond to the author. Before I did, I copied and pasted the address into google to see what came up. After reading of your incident (pretty funny)I quickly emailed him back (as he requested), but rather than giving him my bank account number, I gave him a lecture. The least that these money-hungry morons can do is use proper grammar and address me by my FIRST name!!!!!!
    -Sarah

    FROM THE DESK OF BARISTER PETER LOCKER ,Esq,
    Suite D4738, Holograms Suites,
    4855 Copthal Avenue. City
    London, EC4567BN GB

    Tel:+44-702-407-6375
    Fax:44-870-068-7871

    Dear Kahle

    I am vary sorry to contact you in this manner,my name Barister Peter lockers ,i am in need of
    your help in claiming the founds of one of my cleints (Mr Kurt Kahle) Who died along with his
    entire family on Monday, july, 2000 in a plane crash in Paris( the AF4590). Please visit this site
    that is one of the evidence.(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/859479.stm)

    I have the mandate from his bank in UK to arrange for any of his heir or next of kin to claim
    his money (US$33.5m dollars) or negotiate for transfer of this money in his bank to them to avoid
    confistication by British government.

    Should you be willing to assist me, please urgently
    get back to me, indicating your confidential email,
    fax and phone numbers so that I can brief you on the
    details of this transaction and your reward. We hope
    to conclude this transaction in ten (10) bank working
    days on receipt of your full co-operation.
    NOTE.FOR SECURITY REASONS SEND YOUR REPLY TO (lockypeter@yahoo.com)

    Best Regards,
    Peter Lockers
    Senior Partner
    BA (Hons), Ph.DTT

    Comment by Sarah Deeds — August 8, 2006 @ 4:15 pm

  2. well, for me its not that to bad to,pretend as the next kin of the dead owner of the accounts, for it is better that there will be somebody who will be using the money rather than nothing at all. aside from it benefits people around the market, for supply of money will increased contributing something good for the betterment of the economy.

    Comment by Jim L. Pag-a — September 10, 2006 @ 10:58 pm

  3. ah, i’ve forgot to say, if there are some incidents already that such form of transaction is really possible. then try to grab iut, if ever that it is not true, then do not repeat it accepting such offers again & try to scatter messages that warning people not to get into such usuries.

    Comment by Jim L. Pag-a — September 10, 2006 @ 11:16 pm

  4. hey I got the same letter but it was James Blais that died, didnt know I had a rich uncle lol. Maybe we can all go directly to this lawyers office to collect all our inheritances all at the same time, wouldnt that shock him when 3 million or so ppl show up on the same day. Too funny

    Comment by jo — November 7, 2007 @ 11:28 am

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