Email Scams

Have you received an email from a friend that sounds something like this?

I’m writing this with tears in my eyes,I and my family came down here to London,United Kingdom for a short vacation unfortunately we got mugged at the park of the hotel where we stayed,all cash,wallet,credit card and cell were stolen off us,but luckily for us we still have our passport back in our hotel room.

We’ve been to the embassy and the Police here but they’re not helping issues at all and our flight is leaving in few hours from now but we’re having problems settling our hotel bills and the hotel manager won’t let us leave until we settle the bills,We’re freak out at the moment.

You look at the email and it appears to be from the person you know. You respond and they give you directions to wire money to them. STOP! Pick up the phone and call this person. Chances are they are not out of the country and this is an email SCAM! At some point their email contacts and/or account were compromised and a hacker is attempting to collect money from well meaning friends.

Take a good look at the email responses – does the writing sound like the person you know? Are they using words like “cuz”, “i”, misspelled words? Do they continue to sign with their full name – many people respond to friends with their first name or nickname or initials.

Now, look closely at the email address you are actually responding to. The response email may be going to an address that looks like email but is slightly different – i.e. Mary12@aol.com might be Maryl2@aol.com. Letters might substitute for numbers or visa versa.

What can you do if this has happened to you?

First – contact your email host –  that would AOL, Google, Hotmail or your ISP (Internet Service Provider like Charter, SBC, Comcast). Many times, if your account was compromised, you might have to shut it down.

If the hacker has actually taken over your account and you can still login – go to the settings and check any “forwarding” addresses. Chances are they have set all of your email to be forwarded to another address! Change your password immediately! Use random letters and characters like %#@.

Second – Contact the police and file a report. You will probably want to have copies of the emails sent.

Third – You are encourage to forward a copy of the spam to the “Federal Trade Commission (FTC)” at uec@ftc.gov where it will be examined for possible fraudulent business practices or a victim of false spam complaints. You can also file a complaint at the Internet Crime Complaint Center.

If you can, send out an email to your contacts alerting them of the hack. If any of them have mailed money – they need to fill out a police report.

Other precautions include – make sure you computer antivirus is up to date. Check your credit report annually for evidence of identity theft.