Mr Lee Posted September 30, 2009 Posted September 30, 2009 I wonder how many of you have gotten similar emails and were they filled with enough info to make you think they might be real? Does anybody know anyone who actually fell for one of these? I am sure some elderly people might get duped. Here is what happened this morning. I got an email from a close friend of mine and it came from his actual email account and it sounded pretty good because it seems the sender must have done his homework by reading old emails or sent emails. Of course the first tip off was the fact that they wanted me to send money to Nigeria via western union but otherwise they did a fairly good job and good enough that I was slightly concerned enough to at least call his home to make sure it was really a scam.Below is a copy of the email with a few things left out.How are you doing? I am sorry I didn't inform you about my traveling for a Missionary program. It is currently held in Nigeria, Sweden and Kenya. I am presently in Nigeria. It has been a very sad and bad moment for me because I got robbed on my way to the hotel where I lodged. My ID, Credit card, cash and other valuables I have with me got stolen, I contacted the embassy here to help me out but it will take some time to get back to me,which is why I am approaching you for assistance The total sum of money that i would need would be $2,500 to sort-out my hotel bills and get myself back home. I will appreciate your help, I promise I will pay you back upon my return, Let me know if you can assist me so that i can send you the details to use when sending the money through western union. Peace & Joy. Hope to hear from you soon.First, the main thing to notice is that it is more or less generic and could fit a lot of people, but since the person does things like missionry work, and does travel from time to time, it would not have surprised me if that part could have been true. If and when these scam artists fine tune their emails and start using other countries to route their money, and if they continue to hijack email account and do their homework, they might be able to fool some of the people on your email list. BTW, after I confirmed it was not my friend, I sent the person back an emails which said Hello Good to hear from you, we are good and we are very sorry to hear about your problems. Yes of course we would love to help. Please send me all the information so we can send you the money you need. It may take us a few days to get the money but we will send it as soon as we get it.God bless you alwaysIf they reply then I will forward their info to the FBI and maybe they can catch some of these pieces of human garbage that prey on innocent people. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMason Posted October 1, 2009 Posted October 1, 2009 Scams like this are popping up on the social networking sites like Facebook as well. The scammers will hack an account and then send messages to the network of friends with a similar sounding story. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jollygoodfellow Posted October 1, 2009 Posted October 1, 2009 I wonder how many of you have gotten similar emails and were they filled with enough info to make you think they might be real? Does anybody know anyone who actually fell for one of these? I am sure some elderly people might get duped. Here is what happened this morning. I got an email from a close friend of mine and it came from his actual email account and it sounded pretty good because it seems the sender must have done his homework by reading old emails or sent emails. Of course the first tip off was the fact that they wanted me to send money to Nigeria via western union but otherwise they did a fairly good job and good enough that I was slightly concerned enough to at least call his home to make sure it was really a scam.Below is a copy of the email with a few things left out.How are you doing? I am sorry I didn't inform you about my traveling for a Missionary program. It is currently held in Nigeria, Sweden and Kenya. I am presently in Nigeria. It has been a very sad and bad moment for me because I got robbed on my way to the hotel where I lodged. My ID, Credit card, cash and other valuables I have with me got stolen, I contacted the embassy here to help me out but it will take some time to get back to me,which is why I am approaching you for assistance The total sum of money that i would need would be $2,500 to sort-out my hotel bills and get myself back home. I will appreciate your help, I promise I will pay you back upon my return, Let me know if you can assist me so that i can send you the details to use when sending the money through western union. Peace & Joy. Hope to hear from you soon.First, the main thing to notice is that it is more or less generic and could fit a lot of people, but since the person does things like missionry work, and does travel from time to time, it would not have surprised me if that part could have been true. If and when these scam artists fine tune their emails and start using other countries to route their money, and if they continue to hijack email account and do their homework, they might be able to fool some of the people on your email list. BTW, after I confirmed it was not my friend, I sent the person back an emails which said Hello Good to hear from you, we are good and we are very sorry to hear about your problems. Yes of course we would love to help. Please send me all the information so we can send you the money you need. It may take us a few days to get the money but we will send it as soon as we get it.God bless you alwaysIf they reply then I will forward their info to the FBI and maybe they can catch some of these pieces of human garbage that prey on innocent people. Every now and then I reply to these type emails or the I have just won many millions of dollars email, can have some fun with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts