StCirq

I just opened my email to find the following message:

<<I'm writing this message to you with sadness. I traveled to London for a short vacation and unfortunately for me, I was mugged at a knife point last night at the park of the hotel where i lodged and all cash, credit cards and cell phone were all taken away.

I have reported the robbery to the police but they are yet to find the muggers. My flight leaves in less than 18hrs from now and i am having problems paying my hotel bills.

The hotel manager won't let me leave until i settle the bills. Please, I need a loan from you to return back home and i want you to get back to me if you can help.

Bob>>

Interestingly, it comes from what looks like the email of a business associate of mine that I haven't had any dealings with for a few years, but that is entirely recognizable.

I don't know how that happened - the person I know by this name (the surname is evident in the email; I'm not including it here) would not, I am quite positive, send such a scam. And of course I'm quite sure that "Bob" would have better resources for getting him out of a jam than some old employer of his. Or would make a phone call if he's leaving in 18 hours and not rely on email, or..or..or....

Be alert. Even if it seems to be someone you know, send these things to Spam.

poutine

My husband received this exact email while in London. It was from a business acquaintance, so he just answered to give him a call (in case). No call, but a request for a wire transfer, again by email. When he got home the acquaintance told him her facebook had been hacked.

xyz123

I got this e-mail, as did hundreds of others, from the sports radio-television media columnist of the NY Times (I had e mailed him something a year or two ago)...these vermin are able to exploit a problem with windows and steal the information from a person's e-mail address book and send out hundreds of these. I wonder how many idiots have fallen for this.

socaltraveler

The grammar and syntax are always just a tad off, sometimes more than a tad, so I would really hope people would read these e-mails carefully. But it's a good reminder to read carefully.

StCirq

Good point, socaltraveler, as "Bob" was one of my editors! Even traumatized, he wouldn't have written that note.

scatcat

This same message was sent to one of my friends on Facebook from me supposedly. He was smart enough to know that if I needed money that I would contact family, and he also knew that I do not like London, therefore I would not be there. He called me to alert me about the scam. I had to change all my passwords.

Jean

My contact list was hacked into, and everyone received a similarly-worded plea for help that included an address to overnight some cash. The passwords to my ISP and email had been changed, and my address book had been erased. It took a couple of hours to report the problem and re-set everything. Only two people actually thought I was too dense to call someone (even collect) if I was really in trouble, and they replied to the email.

My husband received a similar email from his cousin a few months ago that sounded actually plausible. The cousin is a dentist who often travels around providing free care, but one phone call to his office confirmed he wasn't in Africa (or wherever he supposedly was 'stuck').

Bottom line: Don't respond to the email. If you think it could be real, pick up the phone and call the person or spouse or another relative. If your address book is hacked, report it to your ISP. They will likely ask you to forward the scam email to them for investigation.

dutyfree

I got a similar email from a friend about 6 months ago.I had not heard about this scam but got suspicious when she begged for money to buy another airline ticket home from London after being robbed and she is a retired flight attendant friend of mine who could have gotten on the plane without a regular ticket!They had broken into her FACEBOOK account too.

cigalechanta

When a friend is in real trouble, They will phone!

cigalechanta

P.S. The bank scams I get alot of.
Your bank will telephone you not put the problem on line.

bobthenavigator

I did not do it !

StCirq

Not to worry, Bob, you're absolved. It was another Bob, but really, one I know and have worked with - though the email came from hotmail.com (which seems to have more than its share of problems with these kinds of scams), and I honestly can't remember whether "my" Bob was on hotmail or not. Will have to go back into my email files and see - and alert the poor Bob as to what has happened.

joannyc

Same thing happened to a friend of mine... someone hacked into his email address and password (and then changed his password) and sent the exact same email to all of his contacts.

clarasong

Yeah, we got the same, or similar messages from dear friends who were 'stuck' in London...First thing we did is phone them and leave a message that their email was compromised...gotta be alert.