Amost scammed by email from friend!

[cody]

Hi everyone,

Thought I would let you know about an email scam that is apparently circulating around the internet. I almost got hooked, but fortunately didn't

Yesterday, I received the following email from a close family friend, who I hadn't been in touch with for a number of months. The email heading was called "Please I need your help urgently"

Am in a great sorrow writing you this note,Just wanted to inform you about something very important,i could bearly think straight at this point,i hope you come to my aid Because something very terrible is happening to me now,i need a favor from you now,I had a trip here in UK

Unfortunately for me all my money got stolen on my way to the hotel where i lodged along with my bag were my passport was And since then i have been without any money i am even owing the hotel here.

So i have limited access to emails for now,please i need you to lend me about 1000pounds so i can make arrangements and return back I am full of panic now,the police only asked me to write a statement about the incident and directed me to the embassy,i have spoken to the embassy here but they are not responding to the matter effectively,I will return the money back to you as soon as i get home,I am so confused right now.i wasn't injured because I complied immediately.


I will be waiting to hear from you since i can't access the internet always
Kind Regards,
xxx (my friend's first and last name inserted here)

So, as I was scratching my head reading this (hadn't had my coffee yet, and was in a hurry to get off to work), I quickly responded saying, "gosh, what a terrible thing, and why did you have all that cash on hand, and not a credit card, etc", but I indicated I would try and help if I could, and wanted to talk to her first;could she give me a phone # to call? Knowing that my friend is British, a visit to the UK seemed perfectly reasonable to me

I received an email reply back a few hours later, saying her cell phone was stolen along with the cash, and to please transfer money via Western Union to xxx address. She would give me both the details of the event, and the cash, as soon as she returned home. Hmmm. I wrote back and said I needed to speak with her before I could do anything, etc. That was the last email correspondence we had.

When I was able to look in to the situation further, later on, it turns out that someone else had been scammed in a very similar way (same story, including a Western Union address in the UK), so I was pretty sure that was the same thing going on. Apparently a hacker got into my friend's email account, hijacked her address book, and was sending out emails asking for immediate wire transfers of money. It took about 36 hours for me to verify that my friend was indeed fine, and safely at home...phew!

In the meantime, I thought it might be useful to let you all know this scam is going around, and if you do get one (or something similar), please be sure to verify the situation verbally before sending any money to anyone (even Western Union, LOL).

Take care and be wise