I just received an e-mail from a member here requesting money to be sent via Western Union to him to help him out, he apparently lost his credit cards in Madrid, Spain and thought I could help him in the short term. He would pay me back of course. Anyone else getting requests?
Someone has hacked into the member's email account and gotten all his contacts and spamming everyone one on the list. This happened to a friend of my 2 years ago. DO NOT SEND MONEY.
Oh, I would email the member to let him or her know about his account been hacked.
Sorry Gary. I would be very careful about that kinda stuff. If he lost his credit cards, did he call his credit card companies immediately? That usually solve the crisis in more ways than one. No I have not received a request like that. I would send an e-mail to Jim Erhardt and let him know the particular details. Sounds like a scam as Gary Said.
Posted by Nate Chappell on July 14, 2011 at 10:25 PM
Hi Gary,
I received the same request and assumed it was probably a scam.
Posted by Gary Gulash on July 14, 2011 at 10:29 PM
Thanks folks, I suspected it was a scam as well. A heads up to others at least if they are being canvassed.
What Gary Yeoh said!
I received this email too (re D.S.)
This is a very common scam, and I've been sent this type of email 100x already, through various people who have my email.
Don't fall for it.
Two weeks ago I got a scam e-mail out of Spain using Western Union as well but it involved a bogus FedEx shipment. It didn't use any NPNer's names though. I thought my e-mail was somehow picked up in the course of our getting tickets to fly there in a couple of weeks. Now I wonder if these things are somehow connected?
The member whose e-mail account was hacked most likely has malware on his computer(s). He/she needs to take steps to find and remove the offending software.
These phishing scams are very common. They prey on our desire to do good and to be helpful. Don't fall prey to them. Also, if there are any links or attached documents in the suspect message, do not follow the link(s) or open the the attachments! Use the one-finger salute, i.e. hit the Delete key and then empty your deleted items folder.
--P
Posted by Kent Staubus on July 15, 2011 at 9:27 AM
LOL. Why didn't the guy just make it easier and say he was in Nigeria instead of Spain?
As a slight aside, these scams are really becoming more pervasive and more sophisticated (although i still get tons of the old-fashioned Nigerian stuff too...) Just today, I got an email from Paypal, looking very official with all the logos etc from the actual Paypal.com site, even links to it, claiming there was 'suspicious activity' on my account credit, and then asking me to fill in personal identification on an attached form to verify the account etc. It was really elaborate, and an obvious phishing scam since neither Paypal nor any other legit business would send you a form asking for that info! A lot of Photographers use Paypal--BEWARE, folks!
I am a billionaire, I just haven't had a time to collect all the money that I have won in Nigeria. Almost 100.000 ponds every few days. Am I lucky or lucky????
Posted by David Sparks on July 23, 2011 at 10:54 PM
I'm back from Madrid - but actually I was in Alaska when this scam message was sent from my account. I spent too much time on public, unsecured internet connections and my gmail account was hijacked. The hacker changed the password and I was no longer able to access the account. The Madrid message was sent to everyone on my contact list after I had boarded a boat and no longer had access to the internet. Sorry for the problems this caused. My wife was able to disable the connection, but only after the scam message had been broadcast.
It is very difficult to reclaim a gmail account after it has been hijacked. If you use gmail, you should check into what is required.
My apologies for the inconvenience this generated.
David Sparks
Discussion
15 repliesThis is a con.
Someone has hacked into the member's email account and gotten all his contacts and spamming everyone one on the list. This happened to a friend of my 2 years ago. DO NOT SEND MONEY.
Oh, I would email the member to let him or her know about his account been hacked.
I received the same request and assumed it was probably a scam.
I received this email too (re D.S.)
This is a very common scam, and I've been sent this type of email 100x already, through various people who have my email.
Don't fall for it.
Sandy
The member whose e-mail account was hacked most likely has malware on his computer(s). He/she needs to take steps to find and remove the offending software.
These phishing scams are very common. They prey on our desire to do good and to be helpful. Don't fall prey to them. Also, if there are any links or attached documents in the suspect message, do not follow the link(s) or open the the attachments! Use the one-finger salute, i.e. hit the Delete key and then empty your deleted items folder.
--P
Kent in SD
Oh.... I'm SO disappointed...
Sandy
Stan, the first scam I ever received was a similar Paypal scam. How did I spot this one. I did not have a Paypal account.
Bruce
It is very difficult to reclaim a gmail account after it has been hijacked. If you use gmail, you should check into what is required.
My apologies for the inconvenience this generated.
David Sparks