Guest 655- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,247
I received the following email today from a client's email address which included some genuine looking contact details with the mobile phone number just one digit out. Because I know the client well and the style of writing did not sound like him I was immediately suspicious and made contact with him to warn him of this.
This is one of the cleverer email scams I have seen and would arouse immediate concern for a friend perhaps pulling people into the scammers trap. Please be very careful.
The email text with all client identity aspects deleted is as follows:
----------------------
Hello,
I'm sorry for this odd request as it might get to you too urgent but due to the situation of things right now. I'm stranded in Madrid,Spain with my family right now, we came down here on vacation and was robbed. The worst part was that wallet, cash credit cards and my cell phone were stolen at GUN POINT, It's such a crazy experience for me, I need help flying back home, the authorities are not being 100% supportive but the good thing is we still have our passport but don't have enough money to get my flight ticket back home and some bills settled, please we need you to loan me some money.
I promise to refund it to you as soon as we are back home safely, I give you my word.Please get back to me so that i can give you my details to send the money to.
Thank you
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
they never stop but as barry says we know the style of people we deal with or are friends with and if the opening line of the e mail looks odd best to just delete.
Guest 710- Registered: 28 Feb 2011
- Posts: 6,950
Good on you Barry. Probably best not point up the failings of the text.
Ignorance is bliss, bliss is happiness, I am happy...to draw your attention to the possible connectivity in the foregoing.
Guest 655- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,247
The problem Howard and what made this so dangerous was that the opening line and the whole appearance of the email was very convincing. It is only the way the email read and my knowledge of how this client writes (and his education...) that alerted me.
Guest 641- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 2,335
I've had a few dodgy emails over the past week, if I do not recognise them, straight in the bin.
But as you say they seem to be trying a different tact lately you have to be on your toes.
Guest 665- Registered: 24 Mar 2008
- Posts: 345
My Dad had one just like that from a friend, except from a different country. Like you he was suspicious as were many others in the person's address book and alerted him to the problem. It's obviously doing the rounds.
Guest 683- Registered: 11 Feb 2009
- Posts: 1,052
But let's not lose sight of the good nature that can also abound in our fellow humans. After all, if I wasn't going to get all that money from my new internet friend (A Nigerian prince no less!), I wouldn't be able to afford to repatriate a family stuck on the Isle of Wight after the dad invested heavily in an on-line pharmaceutical supply firm (Little Blue Tablets R Us). They urgently need the £20,000 the exploitative ferry company are demanding up front. I will meet them at the terminal and they will repay me from the cashpoint machine - with interest - so we are all winners!
I got a very similar email from someone who I knew would never ask me for money and I rang him straight away to let him know his name was being used but neither he nor I knew what could be done about it.