The scammer pretended to be a long-time buddy of mine, and even used his email account to contact me. Having dealt with this very hoax before, I knew that it was nonsense the minute I saw the subject line, “Terrible Misfortune.”
Years ago, I had someone try to pull the same scam on friends of mine. The basic premise is to convince the person receiving the email that a dear friend is in trouble while visiting another country. The trouble always pertains to the poor so-and-so having his or her money stolen or lost while on vacation.
When it happened to me, and my friends and family members were contacted, I was thankful that nearly all of them knew that I wasn’t, as the email claimed, in Ireland without a dime because my wallet had been stolen. I say nearly all of them, because my aunt nearly fell for the con and was getting ready to send money to the scam artist, thinking it was me. I am ever so grateful that she, instead of working from panic mode, had the presence of mind to call me to check out the story. It turned out, of course, to be BS.
Within five minutes of receiving this most recent phony email, I called my buddy to warn him that his email account was hacked. He snickered and said that he knew all about it. Apparently, his friends and family had all been bombarding him with texts telling him that he and his contacts were possibly victims of an email con job.
According to my buddy, his computer had been hacked and his filters, spam and trash had been compromised. He further said that he had it all under control, but it took him an hour and a half working with his Internet service provider to straighten it out.
Below is the email that was sent to my friend’s list of contacts. Please read and heed. I hope you and yours never get caught up in this kind of a scheme.
Good Morning, I’m writing this with tears in my eyes, my family and I came down here to Marseille on a short trip. Unfortunately we were mugged at the park of the hotel where we stayed all cash, credit card and mobile phone were stolen off us but luckily we still have our passports with us.
I made contact with my bank but it would take me 5 working days to access funds in my account, the bad news is our flight will be leaving in less than 8-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. I’ll need your help financially and I promise to make the refund once we get back home, Please let me know if I can count on you and I need you to keep checking your email because it’s the only way I can reach you.
I anticipate your response.
(Note: My friend’s name was written here at the bottom of the email. He has an unusual name, and the correct spelling could no doubt help further the scammer’s deceitful plan).
