I was hacked.

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Not quite a Newb Joined: 26 Mar 2010 Posts: 20

Hi.

I stupidly put my email address and password into a fake account (I know, I can't believe it myself) the hacker got into my email and my facebook account.

He sent out an email to eveyone I've ever emailed (I don't delete anything) from my gmail account.

"">> > Hello,
>> > I'm sorry for this odd request because it might get to you too
>> > urgent but it's because of the situation of things right now, i'm
>> > stuck in London right now, We came down here on vacation , i was
>> > robbed, worse of it is that bags, cash, cards and my cell phone was
>> > stolen at GUN POINT, it's such a crazy experience for me, i need help
>> > flying back home, the authorities are not being 100% supportive but
>> > the good thing is i still have my passport but don't have enough
>> > money to get my flight ticket back home, please i need you to loan me
>> > some money, will refund you as soon as I'm back home, i give you my
>> > word.
>> >
>> > Sandra."

From my Facebook he had the following chats with my friends

""Sandra
Hey..
How are you ?
12:10amJodie
good wat you doin up so late??
12:11amSandra
Not fine
Do you know Andrew and I stuck in London??
12:11amJodie
how'd that happen
12:12amSandra
we got robbed on our way to the hotel park..
All our money cc and phones was stolen off me at the gun point
12:12amJodie
oh my
i wasn't aware you were outta town
12:13amSandra
Thanking god almighty for safe keeping our passports and lifes..
12:15amJodie
so true
12:16amSandra
We need your help??
12:17amJodie
how
12:19amSandra
getting out of here now is our problem..Our return flight leaves in few hours time we are at risk with our flight
What we need now is a financial help
12:20amJodie
Well I am not sure you are who you say you are
12:21amSandra
OMG! Jodie What are you talking about???
12:23amJodie
Do you not have family you can contact where are the kids
12:23amSandra
they are in the hotel now
Am in a internet shop trying to get help outta here
12:26amJodie
how did you pay for internet if you have no money or cc
give me you parents phone number and i will ring them
12:27amSandra
It's free internet facility
12:28amJodie
i am sure if you guys are stuck they won't mind me ringing them and forwarding a message
12:28amSandra
Like i said ealiar i lost everything to the robbers i dont have access to my phone
12:29amJodie
so you don't know your parents home phone number off by heart i find that very odd
you could give their number to me and i will ring them
12:31amSandra
Let me know if i can get a quick loan from you or not
12:32amJodie
i am sorry I have no available funds give me you parents ph number and i am sure they will be able to wire you some funds or maybe your siblings

12:35amJodie
why have you not tried to call reverse charges to your family

AND

"12:34amSandra
Hey Damian!

How are you ?

12:36amDamian
Hi San!!!!I'm great and you?

12:37amSandra
Not fine

12:37amDamian
What are you still doing up, I normally have FB to myself at this time of night

Whats wrong?

12:39amSandra
do you know Andrew and I stuck in London??

12:40amDamian
What the!! because of the crew strikes?

12:41amSandra
We got mugged at a gun point

12:41amDamian
WTF...are you all right????

12:42amSandra
Our Money,CC and P hones was stolen at the gun point..

12:44amDamian
Sandra is no longer online. The following was not sent:

WTF...are you all right???? (send as a message)

12:45amSandra is online.
12:45amSandra
...

12:49amSandra is online."

Gmail got my account reset and new password within 5 minutes of me emailing from another address I have. The hackers put a forward into my gmail to this address *******@yahoo.com (edited out...original spam email [email protected]) which is not mine. A couple of friends replied to the original email (yes, I know again) and then received this email

"Glad to hear back from you.I don't have access to phone right now it was such a crazy experience for me... It has really been embarrassing for me. £1000 will cover all my expenses, I promise to refund it to you as soon as I arrive home. You can wire it to my name from a western union outlet around. Here are the details you need to get it to me.

Name - Sandra H. XXXXXXX (I took out the surname for this post as it's mine)
Location - 73 Kentish Town Rd, London, NW5 2TG United Kingdom

I still have my passport so I can use it as identification. You'll be given a 10 digit confirmation number as soon as the transfer goes through, email it to me as soon as you have wired the cash to me.

Sandra."

I've set up a dummy account and emailed the hacker this

"OMG Sandra, of course I'll help you. How much do you need? What's your number and I'll call you to work out how to get you the money.

So glad you're okay"

The hacker has now replied...what do I do?

I've contacted Western Union but they said there's nothing they can do (you would think they would stop any payments to the payee. Would they have made up a fake passport to get any cash sent to them? How does Western Union work?

I still don't have my Facebook account back, they disabled it. Years of history there and it's very upsetting but not as worrying as what information they got from my gmail account.

Any help would be appreciated.

Posted: Fri Mar 26, 2010 11:23 am

hmm looks like you have a lot of firefighting to do.
You can change your facebook details etc

Posted: Fri Mar 26, 2010 11:25 am

I'm sorry to hear of your problems, sadly this happens all too often.
You'll find help at our sister site :

www.scamwarners.com.

Obviously you'll need to warn as many friends as you can about the scam attempt, whilst we wouldn't normally report email addresses and have them closed down, in this sort of case I'd recommend it so any replies from your friends will go to the closed box, the scammer won't then get them.

If you have the time, it would be a good thing to tell your story at scamwarners as a warning to others about what can happen if you accidentally let your guard down like you did. Baiting the lad is probably not such a good idea, he does have access to all you real information, think about what he might have found in your accounts. Might be best to drop the baiting angle unless you do it from a fake account and make no references back to the real you.

Not quite a Newb Joined: 26 Mar 2010 Posts: 20

Thanks for the quick replies. I emailed Yahoo about the fake address and what happened but only got an automatic response. I'll keep trying. I opened a hotmail under a fake name to email them to see if they were still active and just got the reply. It makes me feel sick to see an email like that come back with my name on it.

This is a google map of the address they want the money sent too
Long Google Maps link

I still can't believe I did it. Too many wines and just let my guard down. I shake my head at people that fall for this. A very valuable lesson learnt

Mod edit: changed format of link to shorten and fix thread blowout -Ima

Posted: Fri Mar 26, 2010 1:44 pm

I take it you realise that the street address is a complete phoney and that he'll undoubtedly pick the money up in West Africa somewhere.

I don't know the exact details of what WU require, but with the right information from the payer it's unlikely that they'll need ID to pick up the money. You can be sure that they have all that worked out beforehand and may even have a friendly clerk in a WU office who won't be too picky.

I presume you don't know that anyone's actually sent any mone yet, you're just worried that someone may fall for it. I can't be sure, but the scammer has probably been too greedy and most folk won't just send that amount of money so easily but the quickest way to deal with it is to cut communications with your friends through these compromised connections, but still understand that he may have copied all your contacts and may still use them, so they'll all need warning.

It's easy to let your guard slip, and my elderly mother and I have had a falling out because she can't resist giving her personal details out at the drop of a hat. She's no fool, but trusting to a worrying degree.

I'm a very cynical person nowadays and I don't get troubled by con artists, I think because they see 'death' in my eyes.

Posted: Fri Mar 26, 2010 2:43 pm

Ouch! Sounds like a lot of patching up needing done.
Just make sure that everyone on your contact list is fully aware that it's a scam, and that they'll probably be getting more varied scam letters over time if this guy has added them to his list or sold them on to someone else.

I definitely agree with the people saying you shouldn't try baiting this one unless there's no way he can make the link back to the real you.
If you're still after revenge, feel free to post the scammer's details up here though and unleash the combined fury of the baiting community on him Wink

Wonder if this sort of thing would make a useful modality actually. Set up a fake E-mail and Facebook account with only baiter character addresses as contacts and drop in a subtle hint to the password in a reply to a scammer.
Might keep him away from real victims for some time if he thinks he's hit a goldmine and drops everything else to focus on it.

Would also be a nice psychological kick in the nuts when his apparent lucky break blows up in his face further down the line Twisted Evil

Posted: Sat Mar 27, 2010 4:33 pm

^^^^That is an awesome idea Technomancer.

Not quite a Newb Joined: 26 Mar 2010 Posts: 20

The only details I have for the scammer is the address he's using to email my friends is (********@yahoo.com). He's using my real name which I'm not that thrilled about putting up. First name is Sandra. Go for it! Go get 'em.

Posted: Sat Mar 27, 2010 11:59 pm

^I think you can count on him getting a lot of very personal attention.

Not quite a Newb Joined: 26 Mar 2010 Posts: 20

Fantastic!

Posted: Sun Mar 28, 2010 2:25 am

First - you are not an idiot. Smile

Second - welcome to Eater! Very Happy

Third - I hope you've gotten in touch (by phone or in person Wink

) with all your contacts to tell them not to respond to any emails from that addy, and above all not to send money to "you."

Not quite a Newb Joined: 26 Mar 2010 Posts: 20

Hi! Yes, I've emailed everyone and most deleted it straight away. Thanks, still an idiot though and I'm still kicking myself.

Posted: Sun Mar 28, 2010 3:01 am

You should get your name changed to "I was a victim, but now I am here to kick mugu ass", or something. You are not an idiot. That happened to a very brilliant botanist I know, one of the smartest people I have ever met. All that happened is you made a mistake.

Posted: Sun Mar 28, 2010 3:12 am

I had a long time friend who had the very same thing happen to him. He is NOT an idiot, neither are you.

These criminals are practiced at their craft. They know what they are doing... you had no idea, neither did my friend.

The important thing is you caught it (as did he) and you told your friends.

Welcome to Eater, even under such a difficult situation.

Posted: Sun Mar 28, 2010 3:24 am

dr stephen williams wrote:

You should get your name changed to "I was a victim, but now I am here to kick mugu ass", or something. You are not an idiot. That happened to a very brilliant botanist I know, one of the smartest people I have ever met. All that happened is you made a mistake.

Didn't we get that one sorted out? Wink

Posted: Sun Mar 28, 2010 3:37 pm

That address you posted up, is that one you used to have that you're locked out of now, or is this one the scammer created using your name and details?

Might introduce him to my slightly clueless music-loving ditzy student chick who's seen the details on Facebook and thinks "you" might make a nice friend to have, hehe Wink

Not quite a Newb Joined: 26 Mar 2010 Posts: 20

It's the address the scammer made up. I have all my email accounts back now but my Facebook has been deactivated. Sounds like fun!

Posted: Sun Mar 28, 2010 9:23 pm

^^ You only made 1 small error. We're all human. Stop kicking yourself.
And now let's mobilize the forces for some scammer pay-back.

Let them think they've hit a few gold mines. Ok to use the first name
Sandra? yes? Who is up for a MASSBAIT. Got my vote. I'm in. btw
That 227 looks like a phone number. I fired my 1st shot at them
Here it is for all to see:
YOU NEED MONEY Reply |Amanda to Sandra
show details 2:33 PM (4 minutes ago)
fromAmanda <****@gmail.com>Sandy, OMFG, I just heard from Misty and we werelike hangig out
at like the mall, and she says your stranded in the State of London.

And the story is you were robbed by a big gang of terrorist or some
shit like that. Oh my God are you OK ????? What can i do to help??

my daddy has lots of money and if i tell him Sandy needs it like bad
and she's been kidnapped and they are demanding money
Daddy will like totally do it for you.
let me know, can you like totally call me on my cel girl ?? Mandy

Note: (good stuff, yes? the story just gets better thru the grapevine)

Posted: Sun Mar 28, 2010 9:36 pm

I'm in, and already on round 3 with the jerk. He's in for a bad month or so Twisted Evil

Not quite a Newb Joined: 26 Mar 2010 Posts: 20

LOL @ Brainaic, that's gold.

Thanks guys, I needed a smile. The 2749 was on the end of another email account I had linked to my gmail...it was the postcode I used to live at. He's just added some numbers to it.

Posted: Sun Mar 28, 2010 10:26 pm

^^^ Thanks Sandra, I can do ditzy. Amanda has been writing to a lawyer in London for about 68 days straight now. 1-a-day, like a vitamin.

Have you considered changing your username? I don't feel right about responding to "I am an idiot". Technomancer has a similar character.
Amanda is normally not quite THAT blonde. But I felt the circumstances called for some valley-speak.

I guess you could say I'm totally in touch with my feminine side.
OK people go ahead, let me have it for that comment. lol

Posted: Sun Mar 28, 2010 10:33 pm

This seems to be an email account created only to receive forwarded email from a phished account. The baiters are anonymous, but the owner of the accounts may not be, as the scammer has had access to her email and Facebook.
Probably only a small risk of problems, but it isn't really safe baiting.

Not quite a Newb Joined: 26 Mar 2010 Posts: 20

Idiots okay, I've been called worse Wink

I'm not up on my valley speak, I'm impressed! I'm an Aussie, no valleys around here. Thanks again, I appreciate you guys doing this.

Posted: Sun Mar 28, 2010 10:48 pm

@Tambourine Man
Hmm, good point. Wasn't too sure about that one actually...

@Sandra (is it Sandra? You're definitely not an idiot, so I'm not using that as a name)
Anyways, meant to ask, can you remember the E-mail address the scammer was using when you first got in touch with them?

I don't know valley speak either. I know Glaswegian slang, a bit of Cockney Rhyming slang, and I'm highly fluent in Technobabble, but that's about it Wink

Happy to join in a massbait if it's definitely zero risk of it coming back to bite anyone though.

Not quite a Newb Joined: 26 Mar 2010 Posts: 20

yes, it's Sandra. This is the address from the first email

<[email protected]>