Thank you, Mr Oxford - and easynet.es.
Publication:
FCRO Subsection:
Wednesday, 7 November, 2018 - 00:26
It's a spam, it uses Standard Chartered as a hook to entice victims to be defrauded, and it's hilariously awful. Note phone number +447452282904 and email address lrbernal@easynet.es and that the reply is to privacy e-mail service ProtonMail at taxmattersjon@protonmail.ch . But the most interesting thing is this: the e-mail provider easynet.es correctly identified this as spam, even as " advance fee fraud (Nigerian 419)" - then allowed it to pass. Is the provider complicit if anyone becomes a victim?
This is the body of the mail
RE: GOOD DAY.
Good day,
My name is Mr. James Oxford, I work in the foreign deposit and investment division of my bank (STANDARD CHARTERED BANK,LONDON HEAD OFFICE , I have worked here at my bank for 10 years, and when i started working here I discovered $50,000,000.00 that has been abandoned for more than 10 years before I started working here and up until now 20 years in total the funds has not been touched, I decided to look into it only to discover that the funds belong to an oil merchant a customer who died many years ago and he odes not have Next of Kin, this is why the funds has been sitting dormant pending and unclaimed, the reason why I am contacting you is because I would like to present you to my bank as the next of kin and the beneficiary of the funds, so that the funds can be released to you and we will both split it into two among ourselves, this transaction is very safe because I am the one who will process the release of the funds.
If you are interested, let me know so that I will give you more details.
Mr. James Oxford
18 Cunningham Avenue
ENFIELD, Middx EN3 6LB
United Kingdom
Mobile: +447452282904
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It's obvious that this is a fraudulent email and the spam protection at easynet.es appended this report to the header.
X-Easynet-ES-Outgoing-Spam-Score 13.4
X-Outgoing-Spam-Report Spam detection software, running on the system "aspam2.nsa.es.easynet.net", has identified this incoming email as possible spam. The original message has been attached to this so you can view it (if it isn't spam) or label similar future email. If you have any questions, see @@CONTACT_ADDRESS@@ for details. Content preview: Good day, My name is Mr. James Oxford, I work in the foreign deposit and investment division of my bank (STANDARD CHARTERED BANK,LONDON HEAD OFFICE , I have worked here at my bank for 10 years, and when i started working here I discovered $50,000,000.00 that has been abandoned for more than 10 years before I started working here and up until now 20 years in total the funds has not been touched, I decided to look into it only to discover that the funds belong to an oil merchant a customer who died many years ago and he odes not have Next of Kin, this is why the funds has been sitting dormant pending and unclaimed, the reason why I am contacting you is because I would like to present you to my bank as the next of kin and the beneficiary of the funds, so that the funds can be released to you and we will both split it into two among ourselves, this transaction is very safe because I am the one who will process the release of the funds. [...] Content analysis details: (13.4 points, 5.0 required) pts rule name description ---- ---------------------- --------------------------------------------------
-1.0 ALL_TRUSTED Passed through trusted hosts only via SMTP
1.6 SUBJ_ALL_CAPS Subject is all capitals
3.1 HK_SCAM_N2 BODY: HK_SCAM_N2
2.5 US_DOLLARS_3 BODY: Mentions millions of $ ($NN,NNN,NNN.NN)
2.0 MISSING_MID Missing Message-Id: header 0.0 LOTS_OF_MONEY Huge... sums of money
0.0 T_HK_NAME_MR_MRS T_HK_NAME_MR_MRS
1.0 ADVANCE_FEE_4_NEW Appears to be advance fee fraud (Nigerian 419)
1.4 ADVANCE_FEE_3_NEW Appears to be advance fee fraud (Nigerian 419)
0.0 ADVANCE_FEE_4_NEW_MONEY Advance Fee fraud and lots of money
1.0 ADVANCE_FEE_3_NEW_MONEY Advance Fee fraud and lots of money
0.6 ADVANCE_FEE_2_NEW_MONEY Advance Fee fraud and lots of money
1.2 MONEY_FRAUD_3 Lots of money and several fraud phrases
An interesting question arises: this was not a marginal spot: the spam recognition figure set by the provider is the default for many systems - 5. It correctly identified enough risk factors to create a count of more than 13. A question therefore arises: is easynet.es liable, in civil and/or criminal proceedings for its failure to protect persons unknown from the actions of their customer. It is not, it seems to this writer, a question of vicarious liability but, rather of aiding and abetting or even conspiracy (in criminal law) and of negligence or even recklessness (in civil law).
We invite contributions from suitably qualified lawyers to write their opinions.
