First post - Facebook scammer

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Hello I'm New here! Joined: 23 May 2009 Posts: 5

Hi all,
This is my first post in this forum, something odd happened to me (or rather my husband) today.

I was in work, and I got a call from my friend 'Sara' to ask was my husband 'Callum' allright, as she was getting some very bizarre messages from him on facebook. I went home, and my hubby was sitting watching tv, unawares. I logged into his facebook account, and there was a chat box between my friend and someone who had seemingly logged into my OH's account, and was in the process of giving her a sob story, and looking for a Western Union Transfer. I rang my friend and told her that Callum wasn't posting the messages, and she stopped messaging him (he was messaging another friend at the same time, similar story, but I lost that message )

The contents of the conversation is below.... has anyone come across this before? The rest of the afternoon entailed closing down his FB account and apologetically emailing everyone in his friends list. His account was set to maximum privacy settings, and he only has people he knows well on his friends list - he doesn't add randomers. Anyone any clue? Thanks in advance
Smile

C
hey

3:54pm S
hi
3:54pm C
are you there?

3:54pm S
yes

3:54pm C
how are you today?

3:54pm S
whose help do you need (In response to ''Callum'' putting ''I need help'' as his staus update)
good how about you

3:55pm C
am not good

3:55pm S
why

3:55pm C
do you know am here dieing?

3:55pm S
what?

3:55pm C
I'm in some kind of deep shit

3:56pm S
what

3:56pm C
am sock in london

3:57pm S
your in london?

3:58pm C
am sock in london
am sock in london
yes

3:58pm S
what are you doing there

3:59pm C
I am sorry i did not email you about my travelling to europe for a FOREX program which is taking place in three major countries in Europe the United Kingdom,Scotland and Ireland.

4:00pm S
yes but whats wrong?

4:01pm C
i was robbed at the car park with a gun point

4:01pm S
where are you now?

4:03pm S
where are you now

4:04pm C
am at the hotel which i lodge in london

4:04pm S
are you safe?

4:04pm C
please i need your help urgently
no am not

4:04pm S
what do you want me to do

4:04pm C
all cash i had on me were stolen
and my credit card was collected too now i'm left with no money
here.I need help out of here.

4:05pm S
can you call 'Karen' (me!)

4:06pm C
I have been reaching out to friends for help, i need some money so
i can setlle my bills out of the hotel
i called karen and e sent me $200 which is not okay
i have to live this hotel besause the flight is less than 3hrs to this time
can you please lend me some money immideatly i got back home i promise to refund it

4:15pm S
how much money do you need im a student dont have much

4:16pm C
how much can you be able to send to me i promise to refund the money immideatly i got home

4:17pm S
i dont know how id get it to you

4:17pm C
can you be able to send me $500?

4:18pm S
no i dont have that kind of money what sort of trouble are you in?

4:20pm C
please i have no time how much can you be able to send me because karen sent me $200 and is not okay to settle my bills because if i dont i will not be allowed to get out of this hotel
and my flight is less than 3hr to this time please help me i promise to pay you back am here dieing
talk to me please
are you there?

4:23pm S
im here

4:24pm C
how much can you be able to raise?

4:24pm S
wha
how much is hotel bill

4:25pm C
the hotel bills is $500 and i got $200
can you help me with $300?
i promise to refund it

4:26pm S
i cant get money to london i less the 3 hours

4:27pm C
you can send it through weseten union

4:27pm S
is there something else wrong

4:27pm C
you go to westen union store

that is just what is boarding me because my fligth is less than 3hr to this time and the hotel manager will not allowed me to leave the hotel if i could not pay up the bills

4:31pm S
how is your bill so big
this dosent make sense

4:32pm C
yes including all my food bills ...please i don't want to miss my fligth

4:33pm C
please you are my last hope help me please i promise to pay you back
go to the store and send the $300 it will get to me in the next 20min

4:34pm S
where are you?

4:34pm C
london in the hotel

4:34pm S
where in london

4:36pm C
dublin here in london
are you willing to help me?
let me know please

4:37pm S
i cant help you till you tell where in london you are

4:38pm C
dublin

4:38pm S
your in dublin

4:38pm C
am in a hotel
yes i am

4:40pm S
are you in Dublin or LOndon?

4:44pm S
you sick b@stard (written after Sara realised what was happening - she was really concerned that the real Callum was in trouble)
4:45pm C
whoever this is, I know you are taking the plss, fu c k off (written by me using Callum's account when I saw what was happening - scuse the language!)

Sorry about the looong opening post!

Posted: Sat May 23, 2009 11:05 pm

Hi and welcome to the Eater.

First of all I'd advise you to remove real life names from your opening post.

Some way or another someone got hold of the login credentials to your husband's facebook account. Have him change his password as quickly as possible, and scan your PC for viruses/ trojans (maybe some key logger was installed) or he is a victim of phishing by clicking a link on an email or PM.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 23 May 2009 Posts: 5

Thanks, I will. I haven't turned on his laptop tonight, I'll get him to check his antivirus ASAP - mine is up-to-date definitely, so I used my laptop to close down the account. Gave my friends an awful shock, they thought my hubby had done one!

Posted: Sat May 23, 2009 11:25 pm

i have heard of this too but i have never seen it happening until now . rest assured you did the right thing .

this time it seems like the scammers lack of geographical knowledge let him down . always be wary and if something odd appers e-mail or better still phone call your friends . your firend sara was quite smart .

Posted: Sat May 23, 2009 11:26 pm

An up to date antivirus doesn't automaitically mean you can't get infected in some way. Try a free tool like MalwareBytes ( http://www.malwarebytes.org/ ) to scan the PC for spyware and/or trojans. Good luck Smile

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 23 May 2009 Posts: 5

atlanteana wrote:

i have heard of this too but i have never seen it happening until now . rest assured you did the right thing .

this time it seems like the scammers lack of geographical knowledge let him down . always be wary and if something odd appers e-mail or better still phone call your friends . your firend sara was quite smart .

Thanks all for the replies. Yep, Sara is very smart - she's also the type of person who isn't easily ruffled - if you get a call from her saying something's not right, then it usually isn't!

As for geography, Sara lives in the UK and myself and OH live in Ireland, that's possibly where that came from, but I also reckon Sara knew that Callum wouldn't be in London on ''business trips'' Rolling Eyes

The thing about this scam is, if the scammer had slightly better English, or was in anyway more convincing, he could easily have got away with some cash. It's one thing getting an unsolicited email from a stranger, but quite another when your actual friend appears to be in trouble. Sara would give you the shirt off her back, and had this guy been a bit more together with his story, she may have 'helped' him. Luckily, she and I are old friends, so she smelled a rat straight away (not helped, I have to admit, for my hubby's penchant for wind-ups and practical jokes!)

Posted: Sun May 24, 2009 12:15 am

i agree with you when you say that if the scammer had slightly better english he could have cost someone some money . what makes me even more angry about this then about a 419 mail is they are taking advantage of peoples good nature . if you get a message from a friend saying they are in trouble it is only human nature you will do all you can to help .

another thing that probably helped is as you say your husband is fond of the occasional practical joke . it was unlikely anyone that knows him will spend money if they think it is a wind up .

everyone with a facebook page should post and re post warnings about this . spreading the informatin round might just stop a person form being conned . i have done it already .

Elite Baiter Joined: 19 Jan 2009 Posts: 1440

This is scary. It's so true that if the English and spelling were better, and he didn't say such dumb things, a person could easily be fooled into sending money.

Posted: Sun May 24, 2009 5:48 am

The contents of the conversation is below.... has anyone come across this before?

YES..

This happened to friends of mine last Friday..

They got them through a "phishing" email.

Several friends were compromised but managed to retract the money sent in time but were still stuck with the WU fee..

My guess is this will be on the rise...
.
.

Posted: Sun May 24, 2009 7:13 pm

Welcome Doogieboogie

I have seen quite a few stories on facebook being compromised. Please make sure that Callum immediately changes his password if he has not already done so.

Posted: Mon May 25, 2009 12:12 am

passwords can be guessed. Also, it's common to have the same password for several different accounts.

Also, if his email account was compromised by some means, it could be used to reset his facebook password... Security is heavy going sometimes but it pays to take a rather paranoid approach.

Master Baiter Joined: 22 May 2009 Posts: 112

1. Get a good anti-virus on Callum's PC. Anything branded Norton, Norman, or McAfee is outright shit and should be removed, though McAfee is less shit than the rest. I'd recommend www.avast.com, it's free and a very good scanner.
2. Change password AFTER the scanner was changed AND the computer has had a start up scan (the Avast setup will ask for this). Don't use any personal details (dates, names, pet names, etc) but use a different word or phrase. A common way is to take a sentence you can easily remember (I am going to the store today) and take the first letters (Iagttst) and add some numbers (Iagttst05). Also be sure to make recovery questions easy to remember, but hard to guess. The default "what is your favorite city" questions are generally a VERY bad idea, since these can be social engineered.
3. Inform everyone in Callum's contact list about the scam, and warn them to be careful with these kinds of things.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 23 May 2009 Posts: 5

Hey all,

Well, I got him to change his password - it's a good un, there'll be no guessing it - I doubt he'll even remember it!

I had a look through his email as well, I didn't see anything that looked like a phishing mail, I checked his spam and trash as well, there didn't seem to be anything. I'll check out those suggestions for anti-virus and anti-spyware, thanks for those.

In the meantime, I've sent all my fb friends a mail telling them what's happened, I've asked them to send messages to all of their friends and so on. The more people who get to know about this the better.

The people I would be concerned about are no so much the friends I have in my age group, or those who are in any way internet/computer savvy - my concern lies with the likes of my mother and some of my aunts. They all use facebook to keep in touch with each other, share photos, etc. God Bless my old mum, she wouldn't know a scam if it hit her in the face. Had it been her that had been sent messages, she'd have been off down to western union quick smart -in fact, she most likely would have given out her Visa card number. It really wouldn't have occured to her that someone had hacked an account, she would have assumed that it was someone she knew, given cash and asked questions later.

So anyway, thanks for all the help and suggestions - I'll get to work on his pc tonight, make sure it's nasties-free. Keep up the good work!

Master Baiter Joined: 22 May 2009 Posts: 112

(No need for a full requote of the above post, we can see it right there ^^^ - JF Wink

)

Uhm... after you installed decent anti-virus software, change the password AGAIN. If they changed it now, but there is a keylogger, they will have the new password as well.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 23 May 2009 Posts: 5

Will do, thanks x

Posted: Mon May 25, 2009 5:17 pm

Facebook was reported to have come under phishing accounts recently.
www.theregister.co.uk/2009/05/15/facebook_phishing_scam/

Posted: Mon May 25, 2009 6:40 pm

Boodle wrote:

Hey all,

Well, I got him to change his password - it's a good un,

I assume that this is a change to the Facebook password ?

Be sure to change the password on the e-mail account associated with it. ... It will be so easy for the scammer to get the new Facebook PW if he has the PW to the related e-mail account even if they are different.

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