An e-mail I received this morning...

[ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb]

Subject: Reply Soon !!!

From: Edward Q.

How are you doing today? I am sorry i didn't inform you about my traveling to Africa for a program called "Empowering Youth to Fight Racism, HIV/AIDS, Poverty and Lack of Education, the program is taking place in three major countries in Africa which is Ghana , South Africa and Nigeria . It as been a very sad and bad moment for me, the present condition that i found myself is very hard for me to explain.

I am really stranded in Nigeria because I forgot my little bag in the Taxi where my money, passport, documents and other valuable things were kept on my way to the Hotel am staying, I am facing a hard time here because i have no money on me. I am owing an hotel bill of $1050 and they want me to pay the bill before checking out,Else they will have to seize my bag and hand me over to the Hotel Management

I need this help from you urgently to help me get back home, I need you to help me with the hotel bill and i will also need $1250 to feed and help myself back home so please can you help me with a sum of $2300 to sort out my problems here? I need this help so much and on time because i am in a terrible and tight situation here, I don't even have money to feed myself for a day which means i have been starving so please understand how urgent i need your help.

I am sending you this e-mail from the city Library and I only have 30 min, I will appreciate what so ever you can afford to send me for now and I promise to pay back your money as soon as i return home so please let me know on time so that i can forward you the details you need to transfer the money through Money Gram or Western Union.Hope to hear from you.

with regards

Edward

Now that sender is my friend, and I have verified with the email message headers that the message was indeed sent from his Hotmail account.

But... very, very fishy!!!

So I called him at home, and asked if he had any problems with his Hotmail account. And yes, he said, he couldn't log-in any more to his account. That happened after he received an e-mail "from Hotmail", asking him to "confirm" his password.

It's called "phishing", and he fell for it, and now it seems that probably all of his several hundred contacts received the message above.

I have forwarded the message to the Hotmail abuse address, and asked them to close that account ASAP. It is possible that some of the recipients will also fall for that scam, and actually try to send money to the scammers in Nigeria, hoping to rescue poor Edward.

But so far, about 7 hours later, I have received no reply from Hotmail.

I have also asked my friend to try to regain his Hotmail account through https://accountservices.msn.com/uiresetpw.s...c=1033&id=2, but he seems to be unable to do this.

Right now I do not know what the next step should be...?

[ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb]

I have also asked my friend to try to regain his Hotmail account through https://accountservices.msn.com/uiresetpw.s...c=1033&id=2, but he seems to be unable to do this.

This is because of the scammers having already reset both password and the "secret question" to verify the true owner!

[-pops-]

Somewhat similar to http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7908498.stm

We are ALL vulnerable!

[andsome]

I have received the original Nigerian e mail several times. I also had a phone call from someone with an Asian accent, telling me that I had won a camera and a new Orange mobile phone. All that he needed was my bank account details to set up a direct debit for the phone bill, with a promise of the first three months FREE.

[Gandalph]

I have received the original Nigerian e mail several times. I also had a phone call from someone with an Asian accent, telling me that I had won a camera and a new Orange mobile phone. All that he needed was my bank account details to set up a direct debit for the phone bill, with a promise of the first three months FREE.

You will have supplied them with the relevant information of course. :lol:

[ginger47]

I have received the original Nigerian e mail several times. I also had a phone call from someone with an Asian accent, telling me that I had won a camera and a new Orange mobile phone. All that he needed was my bank account details to set up a direct debit for the phone bill, with a promise of the first three months FREE.

So has the camera turned up. Is it any good and have you taken any pictures with it yet?

:lol:

[deuces wild]

Sorry to hear about that problem Pat and hope you/your friend can resolve it. :(

[Dencandy]

I received a similar email a few weeks ago from a woman I know. I was immediately on my guard because I thought it so obviously an attempted scam, also I knew the friend it purported to come from was not in Africa. I sent her an email immediately to warn her (but of course she never got it because her account had been taken over by someone else). A couple of hours later I received an email from her telling to send nothing to the old email address because it had been hijacked, etc, etc..

Yes, she had received a spoof email "from GMail" asking her to confirm her email address & password etc. and she replied in good faith. Fortunately there was no sensitive or financial information in her email files which was of any use to anyone else.

It seems some people are much more trusting than I am.

[andsome]

I have received the original Nigerian e mail several times. I also had a phone call from someone with an Asian accent, telling me that I had won a camera and a new Orange mobile phone. All that he needed was my bank account details to set up a direct debit for the phone bill, with a promise of the first three months FREE.

You will have supplied them with the relevant information of course. :lol:

Naturally. I just love scams.

[ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb]

Sorry to hear about that problem Pat and hope you/your friend can resolve it. :(

It is incredibly difficult to resolve. Although we have contacted Hotmail support immediately, it seems almost impossible to get that account shut down. It doesn't help that my friend is rather computer illiterate, and he doesn't know how to answer the 14 questions about his account that must be answered in order to get it shut down.

As long as someone just receives a scam mail like that, it is not so bad - it is almost funny. But if it is your own account that is scamming - and you have lost your contacts list, so you cannot warn the recipients - it is rather scary!

This is one of the dangers of using web-based mail accounts such as Yahoo, Hotmail, or Gmail.

Of course, responding to phishing messages requesting your password is an unforgivable stupidity!

[andsome]

Sorry to hear about that problem Pat and hope you/your friend can resolve it. :(

It is incredibly difficult to resolve. Although we have contacted Hotmail support immediately, it seems almost impossible to get that account shut down. It doesn't help that my friend is rather computer illiterate, and he doesn't know how to answer the 14 questions about his account that must be answered in order to get it shut down.

As long as someone just receives a scam mail like that, it is not so bad - it is almost funny. But if it is your own account that is scamming - and you have lost your contacts list, so you cannot warn the recipients - it is rather scary!

This is one of the dangers of using web-based mail accounts such as Yahoo, Hotmail, or Gmail.

Of course, responding to phishing messages requesting your password is an unforgivable stupidity!

As mentioned in another thread, I reserve my Hotmail account for registering products etc. NO private e mail is on there whatsoever. I was given this advice some years ago, and have adhered to it. :D

[Dencandy]

As long as someone just receives a scam mail like that, it is not so bad - it is almost funny. But if it is your own account that is scamming - and you have lost your contacts list, so you cannot warn the recipients - it is rather scary!

XP's Address Book is easily configured to update itself from other address books I believe. In fact I think it might by done automatically with Hotmail accounts, so you could advise your friend to have a look: All programs > Accessories > Address book. He or she might just be in luck.

[Gandalph]

They never give up do they!. This just in from Halifax.

Dear Customer,

We are currently updating our online banking services,

and due to this upgrade we sincerely call your attention to follow

below link and reconfirm your online account details. Failure to

confirm the online banking details will suspend you from accessing your

account online.

Due to this, you are requested to follow the provided steps

and confirm your Online Banking details for the safety of your Accounts.

Click Here

We use the latest security SSL measures to ensure that your online banking

experience is safe and secure. The administration asks you to accept our

apologies for the inconvenience caused and expresses gratitude for cooperation.

Thanks for your co-operation,

Fraud Prevention Unit

Halifax Bank Plc.

They give themselves away with me. I don't have an account at the Halifax. :D

[teresa17882]

Hi

Your email is a really scary one. I have been confirming passwords and i hope my friends are not getting any fake emails. Thank you so much for sharing the information.

[Gandalph]

Hi

Your email is a really scary one. I have been confirming passwords and i hope my friends are not getting any fake emails. Thank you so much for sharing the information.

Even if you get an e-mail asking for information from a Bank you have got an account with, never reply to it. Ring the Bank. A Bank will never e-mail you asking for any information of a personal and sensitive nature. However they may from time to time e-mail you with offers like Credit Cards or new types of accounts, e.g. e-Banking or the like but again never respond always ring the Bank.

[AlanHo]

Slightly off topic - but to do with a possible money scam.

I received a text today asking me to phone my credit card provider urgently.

This I did and was asked to verify some recent purchases - which were all OK - except for a £5 payment to Oxfam made within the previous hour. I confirmed I had not made such a payment (Oxfam happens to be about the last charity I would ever donate to because of the very high salaries paid to its senior executives and the low proportion of donations that reaches good causes). She then told me that my card had been compromised and it had been stopped - a new one would be provided.

I asked her why Oxfam would do this - after all they would be easily found out. She declined to answer except to advise me that the payment had been requested by Oxfam Company Limited. I can only imagine that Oxfam Co. Ltd are not related to the Oxfam charity but are an "iffy" scam.

It's good to know that some credit card companies are "on the ball".

[catgate]

I had my Maestro card cloned/wiped/whatsitted last year and Nat.West were quickly on to it. I do not know where it happened, but it leaves you feeling slightly vulnerable, even if the bank stands the loss.

"They" had used my card for buying long distance bus tickets in Leicestershire.

I was told, by the chap in the banks fraud dept., that it is usual for a small amount to be misappropriated first and then, if that is not picked up within a short time, they go for bigger stuff. There must be some logic in it.

[jhun phil]

I hate messages such as that one. I mean, i receive lots of messages everyday, and sometimes there are messages that would contain a great plea about the sender inheriting some fortune, usually millions at that, and would ask me to help him transfer that fortune to my account and share it equally as a means of business transaction thing. What a world.

[Hb_Kai]

Hotmail, Yahoo and Mail.com are the worst web-based email accounts I've ever used. Mail.com is the worst for it. But what I find quite hilarious at times is the stupidity of idiots who add you from forums such like this and others asking if you can hack Hotmail accounts.

But just so you can all know. There's this ridiculous method of getting someone's password via Hotmail (and maybe others - I'm not sure).

These kids claim that if you send an email to an address like "[email protected]" or something with your Hotmail address and password and the person's whose account you're after amongst a few lines of stupid code - this will "hack" this "bot" inside the "Hotmail server" and email you the password back.

This "bot" ([email protected]) is the bot that manages all the passwords and addresses or so they claim but really it's an address this "hacker-wannabe kid" has set up to do just this.

If the kid had half a brain then it would realise this isn't how it works. :lol:

Anyone ever seen that?