NSW Government Cautions about Fraudulent E-Mails

Virginia Judge, Fair Trading Minister of NSW alerted Sydney residents on August 20, 2010 that a global e-mail scam was targeting users with messages from so-called friends who were touring abroad and requesting for urgent funds transfer so they could come out of crisis.

Ms. Judge, who almost became a victim, stated that she got a scam e-mail from her friend Ross Steele, another victim; however, became suspicious. NSW government reported this on August 20, 2010.

The Minister said that in the fraudulent message, her friend Steele seemed to write that his wallet was lost in Spain and he was without money for either continuing his stay there or returning to his home in Sydney.

But Steele was very much in Sydney. Following the incident, he said that in July 2010, there had been an unexpected termination of his account, while his friends began receiving bogus e-mails from his address stating that while traveling in Madrid he was stuck and required cash that should be wired through Western Union. NSW government reported this.

Steele's e-mail further stated that he couldn't be contacted over telephone. Later he told that he received money from no less than 5 friends.

Thus, Ms. Judge advised, everybody should review their computers' privacy configurations, maintain caution regarding posting personal information online and checking the amount of information available, to remain safeguarded.

She said that if any user got an e-mail seemingly from a friend/family member saying that the person was in trouble, then that user must assess such an e-mail's veracity by reviewing its style of writing.

Further, according to Ms. Judge, ever-since the Internet came into existence, online frauds too have been playing. Additionally, websites for social networking were capable of putting users in danger of scams, as scammers could abuse users' private details to cheat them off their money. When the conmen manage to compromise people's social-networking or e-mail accounts they alter their login credentials and pretend to be those people.

Hence Ms. Judge concluded that one mustn't give out his Internet account information via e-mail as also be particularly cautious about sharing his financial or other personal details.

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» SPAMfighter News - 9/4/2010