| There are a lot of scams out there on the internet, and most are pretty easy to pick, but I got a beauty today, and it's blog related. I have been following and communicating with Julie in Japan at MyQuiltDiary for quite a while, and today I got an email from her, which is not unusual. What was unusual was the content. Here's what it said: Just hoping this email reaches you well, I'm sorry for this emergency and for not informing you about my urgent trip to Madrid - Spain but I just have to let you know my present predicament. Everything was fine until I was attacked on my way back to the hotel, I wasn't hurt but I lost my money, bank cards, mobile phone and my bag in the course of this attack. I immediately contacted my bank in order to block my cards and also made a report at the nearest police station. I've been to the embassy and they are helping me with my documentation so i can fly out but I'm urgently in need of some money to pay for my hotel bills and my flight ticket home, will definitely REFUND as soon as back home. Kindly let me know if you would be able to help me out so I can forward you the details required for a wire transfer. waiting to hear back from you.. Thanks Julie Well. It's a personal(ish) email, it's from Julie's email. It's not just asking for money straight away, or sending bank details or a dodgy link. It's inviting me to email her back so I can verify it's from Julie. Here's the questions though... Julie has made an unscheduled trip to Madrid? Why? She's an American scout-leader in her 70s, living in Japan with four children and numerous grandchildren. Why would she go to Madrid? Given that she has grown up children, why would she ask ME for money? Julie's account has obviously been hacked. A quick google of some key phrases in quote marks like "urgent trip to Madrid" reveals for sure that it's a hoax. The hacking doesn't pass the suspicious Laura test, but I'm aware that there are a lot of people who might take it at face value. So, if I email Julie back, the hackers are going to contact me and or focus on my email account next. So I can't do that. Her blog is linked to her email, so anyone who has commented on her blog is likely to have received and email. I've left a comment, but Julie is possibly locked out of her own email. So I've tried Facebook. This sort of hack means possibly having to change your email account. Which sucks. My impression is that older accounts like yahoo ones can be harder to protect and get back into than gmail accounts. I may be wrong, it may be gmail's advertising, but that's what I think. So what else can you do? There are some suggestions here about how to protect your email. I also very strongly advise that before responding to or forwarding any weird emails, that you google key terms within "" marks to see if there are reports of them. You'll usually find it if it's a scam. You can also check them in anti-hoax sites - there are a heap online. Hope this is useful, and hope no one replies to that email! |
Oh dear! The lengths that people go to! Don't they have a real life?
ReplyDeleteOh no, my cousin got mugged in the same alley - I will not be going to Madrid on a mystery holiday!!
ReplyDeleteyup, this has done the rounds before, and is on its way round again!
ReplyDeleteAny email I receive with no 'title' is treated with extra suspicion, and I am grateful to anyone who lets me know I have been hacked!
it has happened, but I just changed my password, and seem to be ok... ( I trust)
Yep, got the same email and immediately trashed it!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much Laura! I just can't believe what there is going on and happening around! Can we ever be enough careful?! x Teje
ReplyDeleteThat is actually a pretty believable one, but it does still sound "off". I have my g-mail account linked to my cell for two step authentication. It means that (ideally) no one can log onto my e-mail without either being on my personal authorized computer or having my cell. It adds another layer of protection.
ReplyDeleteI've had this happen to me. They hacked my email account and then changed the pop settings so all new emails then went to the sub-email address they linked to my account and I got nothing at all. They sent that email to all my contacts and at the same time stole my facebook and ebay accounts. Apparently I got mugged in London.
ReplyDeleteGetting everything back was a pain, I still don't have that Facebook account back almost a year later and have given up; the account is locked but unrecoverable. Ebay on the other hand was much easier to get back, even with living in New Zealand. They didn't get Paypal as it has a separate password.
Since then I've made my password a lot stronger and keep a separate one for Facebook from everything else and Paypal is yet another one.
Thanks for this good explanation. I do believe that Yahoo is the most likely to be hacked as every one of these type messages have come from a yahoo account. Today I got another suspicious e-mail looking like it came from yahoo saying my account was blocked and asking me to "click here" to fix the problem.(I did not open it).
ReplyDeleteIt would be hard to change the e-mail account because all my files and contacts have been wiped clean and the only thing I can do is wait for others to contact me. The password was changed within the first ten minutes. I am now looking at everything with a it of suspicion.
My sister had this happen to her hotmail account. She probably can't access her facebook either if they have her email account. This scam is fairly old as it happened to my sister two years ago.
ReplyDeleteGoogle has a two step authentication process you can set up. That totally sucks for her.
ReplyDelete