It Should Be Obvious, But...

[kevin_standlee]

If you get a gramatically-mangled e-mail from someone you know claiming that s/he is traveling somewhere, lost his/her wallet, and needs you to wire money to him/her right away, the default assumption should be is that person's e-mail is not his/her own any longer. I'm not saying someone stuck in a situtation like that might not do something of that nature, but it's somewhat unlikely.

Why do I say this? I got an e-mail today purportedly from someone I know making such a claim. I forwarded it to a friend of the person to say, "I think so-and-so's e-mail address book has been hacked." As I expected, the "traveler" isn't traveling anywhere and knows nothing about being stuck some place needing an urgent wire transfer.

I wonder how many people this particular scam will catch. It doesn't even sound terribly original to me, but maybe I'm just cynical. Heck, if my mother got an e-mail from me begging for emergency money because I was (say) stuck in London without my wallet, it's sufficiently plausible that she could be taken in. (No offense intended, Mom! I know you read this sometimes.)

Note to the person affected, or others nearby that person: I deliberately filed off the identifying information about the story before posting it here. No criticism of you is implied at all -- anyone could have it happen to him/her.

Comments

[yourbob.livejournal.com]

This scam has recently broken into the news. It's not old, but apparently has recently picked up steam.

Something I'm doing (probably too slowly) is to tell friends and family that under no circumstances will I ask for money via email without some sort of independent confirmation.

[nimrodjcs.livejournal.com]

I heard something about this concerning FaceBook recently also.

Thanks Kevin,

[maurinestarkey.livejournal.com]

it was nice of you to care about our privacy. Indeed, Dann's e-mail has been hi-jacked. The pass word to his account has been changed

It has been happening to a number of others and seems to stem from Facebook and MySpace account. I'm not sure which.

I've become very skeptical of all e-mails.

Thanks though...

Independent confirmation

[hazelchaz]

I'm thinking I should make sure everyone knows my cell# -- and when I travel abroad and get a temporary cell phone, to tell them that number too.

[petrea-mitchell.livejournal.com]

It's a refinement of a very old scam. The more primitive form involves the scammer getting a name and phone number, calling, saying, "[name], it's me! Help!" and letting the mark fill in personal details on who they think the caller is.

The scam was easy for you to spot because, I imagine, you mainly correspond with people who write e-mail in complete sentences. A lot of people, like the victims on Facebook where this scam is making news right now, would find it perfectly normal to get grammatically e-mail (or internal Facebook messages) from their friends. They would also find it natural that the person used that platform rather than picking up the phone for an urgent message.

So basically, it didn't work on you because you weren't in the target demographic.