Scammers Using Identities of Eminent Personnel to Scam People

Cyber criminals are exploiting identities of community representatives and local councilors to rip people in Newtownabbey District (Borough Council, UK) off their hard earned money.

The fraudulent e-mails claim that the person (whose identity is misused) is in Malaysia, Nigeria or some other country to attend a conference and has been robbed by criminals there.

The e-mail's sender further says that he is in urgent need of an amount of 1,900 Euros to settle his hotel bills and return home. He urges e-mails recipient to help him out of the mess by sending whatever amount of money he could afford and promises to pay the money back soon after returning. He further requests the recipient to let him know if he (recipient) wants to help him (sender) so that the sender could give him instructions for wire transfer, reported newtownabbeytoday.co.uk on June 9, 2010.

Issuing a warning regarding the scam, Councilor Fraser Agnew, the Chairman of Newtownabbey District Policing Partnership, advised people not to get into the trap of scammers as these fake e-mails come in every kind of disguise in order to rip off their money, reported Newtownabbey.co.uk on June 9, 2010.

Unfortunately, security experts informed that such fake e-mails are continuously increasing. So, users are advised to be aware about all the prevailing online scams that they could encounter when online.

The experts suggested that even if a user has already been scammed, he should ensure his online safety as he could potentially fell for another such scam. If a user is aware of the way of stopping a scam, he could stop his money from reaching into the hands of scammers.

They also suggested that in case a person falls victim to such a scam, it is important for him to know how to report the scam properly to the concerned authorities rather than feeling embarrassed of the incident.

Finally, if the user is not sure about any email received by him, then it is best to avoid responding to it. In fact, the e-mail should be deleted at once or it could be send to the sender's ISP.

Related article: Scammers Exploit Tax System Resulting in ID Theft

» SPAMfighter News - 6/19/2010