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I'm a lousy baiter... Joined: 23 Nov 2003 Posts: 321

I just received a mail from an old acquaintance in France, with her own email address as sender's address. It was a letter in (fairly good) French, asking for help, stating that she was in London and had lost her purse, so would we please all contribute money for her to pay the hotel and the trip home... £ 1,500, by Western Union. At first I thought that sounds a bit like what she'd do in such a situation... But then, the Originating IP points straight to Lagos. Shocked

I phoned her up to find out (from her son) that she was safe and sound in her native country, but definitely not in England...

I can only assume someone hijacked the account and sent this to everybody in the address book. Let's hope they did not tamper with the PW, so her son can change it again.

Will keep you informed on further developments.

Anyone ever seen anything like this?

O.

Posted: Wed Dec 17, 2008 4:25 pm

Seen it a lot in the last year or so.

There's been quite a bit in the UK press and many examples on the 'net.

I'm a lousy baiter... Joined: 23 Nov 2003 Posts: 321

Got any links to those examples on the net, perchance? Or the right search terms...? 8)

Posted: Wed Dec 17, 2008 4:31 pm

It's a known scam. Her account may have been hacked, but more likely she's fallen for a phishing scam and entered her account details on a fake site.
Her password will certainly have been changed, along with the question and answer needed if she forgot her password. Sorry.
The last thing the scammer wants is for her to receive replies to the bogus email.

EDIT See Click here for an example.

Posted: Wed Dec 17, 2008 5:30 pm

^^ What they said. Mostly Hotmail accounts were subject to this hack. Was this the case here too?

419Eater is my life Joined: 10 Jul 2008 Posts: 366

Most likely they hacked her computer. Her bank accounts are likely okay unless that information was on her computer.

Does anyone know what WU's attitude is to stopping a scam like this?

p.

Posted: Wed Dec 17, 2008 11:08 pm

pablo wrote:

. . . . . WU's attitude . . . .

Why would WU even have an attitude? Confused

The scam has nothing to do with them.
They are just the suggested method for making payment in the particular scam mentioned in the OP.

Posted: Wed Dec 17, 2008 11:22 pm

Omena wrote:

Got any links to those examples on the net, perchance? Or the right search terms...? Cool

http://baheyeldin.com/technology/technology-society/hijacked-email-account-scam-asks-money-transfers.html

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/09/e-mail-scammers-ask-your-friends-for-money/?apage=4

http://www.lemmingtrail.com/t.php?id=102493

Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2008 11:44 am

She needs to contact her mail provider asking for the account to be suspended immediately (to stop the scammer stealing her friends money) and ideally demonstrating that the person currently accessing it is a fraud. I don't know if she'll get her account back or not, but if she can email anyone she knows, or get friends to do it, explaining not to send money, it'll help a lot!