This message came in today from a cousin's email address — and freaked out some members of my extended family. However, it's a total scam. Someone hacked in my cousin's email address (either by guessing her password or by phishing for it) and sent out these messages. One family member actually went to the bank to get cash to send to London!
Needless to say, my cousin is safe at home — and was initially somewhat confused because she couldn't get into her email. One of the first things the scammers did was change her password. And then the phone started ringing….
If you see messages like this, don't respond, don't be fooled. Do not try to get back to the family member by email, but use other means. Remember, the scammer has access to the email account, and can answer. Being bcc'd on a message (which I was) is one sign that it's not legit. (But if you're not bcc'd, that's not proof that the message is legitimate.)
Here's an account of someone who received a very similar message earlier this year — it's possibly from the same scammers, as it's nearly word-for-word identical. Don't be fooled!
Subj: Horrible Trip
Hello,
This message may be coming to you as a surprise but I need your help.Few days back my family and I made an unannounced vacation trip to London,UK.Everything was going fine until last night when we were mugged on our way back to the hotel.They Stole all our cash,credit cards and cellphone but thank God we still have our lives and passport.Another shocking thing is that the hotel manager has been unhelpful to us for reasons i don't know. I'm writing you from a local library cybercafe..I've reported to the police and after writing down some statements that's the last i had from them.i contacted the consulate and all i keep hearing is they will get back to me. Our return flight leaves soon...I need you to help me out with a loan to settle our bills here so we can get back home . I'll refund the money as soon as we get back. All i need is $1,850 USD..Let me know if you can get me the money then I will let you know how to get it to me.
Thanks
WARNING- March 16, 2011 this same eemail was sent by c.zeckmeister@yahoo.com It is a FRAUD
ReplyDeleteHello
I need your help as soon as you get this message, I'm stuck in LONDON with
family,we came down here on a short vacation but unfortunately got ourselves in
a very tight and horrible situation. It’s so unlucky the little bag containing
all valuables and cash got stolen at the hotel park last night. Glad we still
have our lives and passport but out of cash right now. Please can you send me
$1,850.00 via western union to get things fixed down here and get back home?
It's really embarrassing to us here please don't inform anybody yet I’d def
refund it upon my return.Let me know if you can get me the money then I tell you
how to get it to me.
Keep in touch
c.zeckmeister@yahoo.com
How did your cousin fix the problem? My sister was hacked with this same email and we are having the hardest time getting back into her email accounts since they have gone and changed her passwords.
ReplyDeleteFrom: Vernon T. Jones Jr. [mailto:marqueitaajones@earthlink.net]
ReplyDeleteSent: Friday, December 02, 2011 10:03 AM
Subject: Vacation Misfortune..........(Help Needed).........Vernon T. Jones Jr.
Hello,
This message may be coming to you as a surprise but I need your help.Few days back we made an unannounced vacation trip to London,Uk.Everything was going fine until last night when we were mugged on our way back to the hotel.They Stole all our cash,credit cards and cellphone but thank God we still have our lives and passport.Another shocking is that the hotel manager has been unhelpful to us for reasons i don't know. I'm writing you from a local library cybercafe.
I've reported to the police and after writing down some statements that's the last i had from them.i contacted the consulate and all i keep hearing is they will get back to me. i need your help..i need you to help me out with a loan to settle my bills here so we can get back home, our return flight leaves soon. I'll refund the money as soon as i get back. All i need is $1,850 ..Let me know if you can get me the money then I tell you how to get it to me.
I'm freaked out at the moment!!
Vernon T. Jones Jr.
Received a shorter version today.
ReplyDeleteI'm writing this with tears in my eyes,my family and I came down here to London, United Kingdom for a short vacation. unfortunately,we were mugged at the park of the hotel where we stayed,all cash and credit card were stolen off us but luckily for us we still have our passports with us.
We've been to the Embassy and the Police here but they're not helping issues at all and our flight leaves in few hours from now but we're having problems settling the hotel bills and the hotel manager won't let us leave until we settle the bills. Well I really need your financial assistance..Please, let me know if you can help us out?
Am freaked out at the moment!!
Here's another from seemingly the same source, unless the criminals are copying each other. Apart from the content, the poor punctuation etc. is a give-away:
ReplyDeleteSorry i did not inform you about our trip,I'm writing this with tears in my eyes,my family and I came down here to Madrid Spain for a short vacation unfortunately we were Robbed at the park of the hotel where we stayed,all cash,credit card and Mobile Phone were all stolen from us but luckily for us we still have our passports with us.
We've been to the embassy and the Police here but they're not helping issues at all and our flight leaves in few hrs from now but we're having problems settling the hotel bills and the hotel manager won't let us leave until we settle the bills lease i need you to lend me some money, i promise to refund it as soon as I'm back home,I am so confused right now and thank God i wasn't injured because I complied immediately
May 1, 2012
ReplyDeleteThose Clever Skammers are STILL stuck in
Spain...! Sending emails to everyone in
Beverly Hills (and why Not!) appealing for
money. Looks so very legitimate. Only thing
is, the people on the skam letter...are
actually in Bev Hills. Very Clever.
And You Be Clever Too! Do Not Be Taken In!!!!
something new: i got the mail, contact name was right, but if you checked the adress, there was an additional letter in the adress. so they set up a new mail account, the reason might be that this is more convenient to them than changing the password (blocked mail ringing the alarm bells and so on...)
DeleteSo, given that you recognise this as a scam and don't fall for it, what is left on the friends computer from which the scam was forwarded and how do they get rid of the virus/whatever??
ReplyDeleteThey have now changed the city to Madrid and is going at it in Dk. Just now got one of these mails and hurried to the internet to check if it was a scam.
ReplyDeleteDanish yahoo users wacth out!!!
Wow, just got this mail .... ba aware of these suckers! Hate them!!!
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry i didn't inform you before leaving, Few days back my family and I made an unannounced vacation trip to Dubai. Everything was going fine until last night when we were mugged on our way back to the hotel.They Stole all our cash,credit cards and cellphone but thank God we still have our lives and passports safe. The hotel manager has been unhelpful to us for reasons i don't know.I'm writing you from a local library.
I've reported to the police and after writing down some statements that's the last i had from them.i contacted the consulate and all i keep hearing is they will get back to me. Our return flight leaves soon...I need you to help me out with a fast loan to settle our bills here so we can get back home . I'll refund the money as soon as we get back. All i need is $1,650..Let me know what you can do so I can tell you how to get the money to me.
This scam e-mail does not necessarily mean that the nominal sender's e-mail account or computer has been hacked.
ReplyDeleteA scammer can collect an e-mail address and signature text from posts on a mailing list archive. The scam e-mail is constructed using a forged From: header and a Reply-To: header to direct the replies to the scammer's address; the body of the e-mail contains the plea for help and the correct signature text to make a plausible forged e-mail. The forged e-mail is sent using Bcc: to other addresses copied from the same mailing list (which, the scammer hopes, would include people who would know and respond to the sender).
Using that technique, a scammer does not have to break into the pretended sender's e-mail account to forge the e-mail nor does he have to steal the pretended sender's address book to get addresses of friends or acquaintances of the pretended sender.
This is a particular form of e-mail spoofing.
I am also a victim of this scam. I can still access my email, but lost all my archives in my inbox, sent and addresses files. Even when I sent some emails in reply to worried family members at this time, these sent messages do not get archived. Does anybody know the solution? Actually, I start referring my worried contacts to start corresponding with me via another email address I have. Does that hacker have my password and know how to open those emails?
ReplyDeleteI'm getting lots of emails saying that this kind of letter was just sent out from my email address. I've told them to just delete it and that I've changed my yahoo email password. Is there anything else I need to do to my computer?
ReplyDeleteI found this and am passing it on.
ReplyDeleteYahoo provides help for restoring mail and contacts that this email deletes
First, you'll want to follow the steps in this article:
My account may have been compromised
Then you will need to submit a request to restore any lost emails. See the article below for help with that. Please note that this must be done asap! Emails lost more than 24 hours ago are no longer available to be restored.
Restore Lost or Deleted Emails
http://help.yahoo.com/kb/index?locale=en_US&y=PROD_MAIL&page=content&id=SLN2552
and for lost contacts:
Restoring lost or deleted Contacts
http://help.yahoo.com/kb/index?page=content&id=SLN3670&locale=en_US&y=PROD_MAIL_ML