Holiday email scam

[synsei]

I am sure most of us receive scam emails from time to time, but this particular scam is truly insidious. Please read the example I received at just gone 11am yesterday:

Good morning,
I Hope you get this on time, My family and I made a trip to Manila(Philippines) unfortunatley we were mugged at the park of the hotel we are staying, all cash,credit card and phone were stolen off us but luckily we still have our passports with us, Celia was traumatized at this incident and was rushed to the Medical section.

I have been to the Embassy and the Police here but their response was too casual, the bad news is our flight will be leaving very soon but we are having problems settling the hotel bills and the hotel manager won't let us leave until we settle the bills, I will need your help/LOAN financially I promise to make the refund once we get back home, you are my last resort and hope, 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.

Thanks
John

This email was sent from my Uncles email address and as you can imagine it threw me initially. After reading it through a couple more times alarm bells began to ring so I called my Uncle and Aunties landline - No answer. I'm now beginning to think the email might be genuine however I then called my Aunties mobile and she picked up (on her alleged stolen phone) and confirmed that none of the family have ever been to Manila. The names used in the email are those of my Aunty and Uncle and they have cleverly copied his email writing style. They achieved this level of detail by hacking into my Uncles email account upon which they had access to a rich vein of personal info and total access to the account. The email was sent from within his account, hence why initially I considered it to be genuine.

Please be very aware of this scam, especially if you have relatives with whom you do not have regular contact and who travel abroad a lot.

[Tim]

I got this one a couple of weeks back Dave, but it was from a ex-girlfriends hotmail account and I have not seen or heard from her in over 10 years, so I just read it, laughed and hit the delete button.
It is a dreadful scam though and no doubt some vulnerable people have fallen victim too it, so good idea to share it Dave, it didn't occur to me to do it :scratch:

This is an excellent read for those who are unaware of common scams;

http://www.met.police.uk/fraudalert/docs/mps_little_book_big_scams2.pdf

[Mark Grant]

They achieved this level of detail by hacking into my Uncles email account upon which they had access to a rich vein of personal info and total access to the account. The email was sent from within his account, hence why initially I considered it to be genuine.


It's a nasty scam that one :(

Unfortunately that's the problem with web based email accounts, thousands of emails will be stored and searchable with real names and addresses and details of websites they have bought from and paypal and ebay login details etc.

I guess he used wifi somewhere to log into his online email account.

The criminals will have visited sites found in the email history and done the ' forgot password' link and then can take control of many existing online accounts and open new ones. :eek:

That's why I dont like websites that store credit card details as it makes it easy for criminals to order using the stored details and have the goods delivered to a 'work' address etc.

Best ask you uncle to change passwords on sites he has bought from.

One of the real nasty tricks that then happens is the criminal applies online for easy to get high interest payday loans using the victims details and the first the victim knows about it is when they spot the new direct debits or the debt collectors get in touch...

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/loans/2012/08/payday-loan-firm-banned-for-allowing-fraud-then-chasing-victims-for-cash

http://www.empireclaims.co.uk/blog/index.php/payday-loan-king-wonga-taking-fraudulent-funds-from-random-victims/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2012/sep/14/wonga-defends-loans-process-fraudulent-repayments

http://www.experian.co.uk/consumer/questions/askjames295.html

[johnB]

I got this one a couple of weeks back Dave, but it was ufrom a ex-girlfriends hotmail account and I have not seen or heard from her in over 10 years, so I just read it, laughed and hit the delete button.
It is a dreadful scam though and no doubt some vulnerable people have fallen victim too it, so good idea to share it Dave, it didn't occur to me to do it :scratch:

This is an excellent read for those who are unaware of common scams;

http://www.met.police.uk/fraudalert/docs/mps_little_book_big_scams2.pdf

So Dave, what if your ex-girlfriend is still stuck in a hotel in Manila?:)

[JazzBones]

Thanks for this info folks its invaluable to anyone who trusts without checking. I use to get alot of International calls but I have always had 'caller identify' facility on my land lines plus that lovely lady who quickly apologizes for me not being available, please leave a message. It was gratifying to hear the caller immediately hang up and the calls have since ceased. Any genuine callers I know leave a message and I call them back or as I know them I pick up the phone.

Once had a text message at 3:20am!!!!!, congratulating me as my mobile(cell) number had won me GB£920,00.00p in a Europewide draw and to email some jerk I'd never heard of to arrange transfer of funds to my bank account... the delete button was hit and I went back to sleep.... guess they were hoping I wouldn't be alert to a scam at that time of the morning:ner:

[Marco]

Nightmare... My mobile phone stays switched off until I need to use it. Simples. The last thing I'd do is have the damned thing switched on in the bedroom while I'm asleep! :nono:

Not that I'd likely hear it go off anyway, as it would take a nuclear bomb explosion to wake me at that time in the morning!! :eyebrows:

Marco.

[Tim]

So Dave Tim, what if your ex-girlfriend is still stuck in a hotel in Manila?:)
Now that would be amusing :lol:

[Barry]

I had my e-mail 'address book' stolen about a year ago. Everyone on that list was sent a scam e-mail similar to the one sent to Dave: that I and my familily were stranded in Mallorca, had been mugged (including the "cell phone"), unable to pay the hotel bill and the embassy was being unhelpful, so could anyone send 'me' some money to help me out.

It was clear from the message that it not about me or my family; the use of the term "cell phone" gave it away, as well as the erroneous statement that the embassy was being unhelpful.

Despite no-one falling for the scam (it just didn't read right; it was not written in my style), it did cause many people to contact me as they were worried. I even had friends visiting the house just to make sure I was OK.

I spent virtually the whole of the day in question on the phone to BT, Yahoo as well as receiving texts, e-mails and phone calls from concerned friends who needed to be reassured. Yahoo dealt with the problem quickly, but were unable to recover my address book. Neither did they offer an apology for the inconvenience.

So at the end of the day, nobody was seriosly inconvenienced, but were given cause to be concerned - it was the latter that annoyed me.

It was clear that I was not the only victim of the scam: Yahoo said it was likely others with the same name as mine would have been affected. Since then I have heard of similar scam e-mail sent out.

So I can sympathise with you Dave. The fact the e-mail displayed your uncle's writing style and used both their names is particularly insidious!