Llanelli Resident Victimized with E-Mail Scam

A Llanelli (Carmarthenshire) man John Wynne Hopkins, aged 56, is another individual who got victimized with an e-mail scam. Thisissouthwales.co.uk published this during November 2011.

Reportedly, phone calls started to pour in for Hopkins from anxious relatives and friends when they got messages in their mailboxes stating that robbers had attacked him.

The e-mail, which reached everyone on his address book, urged readers to wire cash so he may clear his hotel expenses.

It was only when a friend from the army whom Hopkins knew since long called him and asked about his well-being that he came to know about the scam.

Meanwhile, after answering the electronic mail, while providing his account particulars, that Hopkins assumed the Internet Provider, BT, which he used, sent him that he realized he had become a victim of an e-mail scam.

And once Hopkins replied, an e-mail got dispatched from his account to each and every person on his contact list requesting to answer so that they can be told as to where they should dispatch the money. One more electronic mail was subsequently dispatched carrying details about everything that Hopkins perceives is a bank account in Spain.

Disturbingly according to security specialists, Hopkins was hit with the "stranded traveler's scam," one more version of the Advance Fee Fraud or the Nigerian scam.

The specialists elaborate that the scam characteristically starts after the perpetrators compromise someone's electronic mail account and then dispatch e-mails to everybody on that accountholder's address book. These e-mails assert that robbers suddenly attacked the accountholder who was traveling abroad just as Spain in Hopkins' case due to which he lost his cash, identifying credentials and luggage. Thereafter, the e-mails urge the recipient for sending the money through wire-transfer so the accountholder can clear the hotel bills as also buy the return ticket like in Hopkins's case.

Thus according to security specialists, users mustn't get ensnared with the scammers' ploy and answer such e-mails, as these are crafted simply to make the recipients worry regarding their friend's condition and thereby send the money prior to making sure the plea is real.

» SPAMfighter News - 11/16/2011