Writer of Newfoundland Becomes Victim of Email Scam

Vocm.com reported on 6th May, 2015 quoting Peter Pickersgill, a well known author and cartoonist based at Newfoundland which is a large Canadian Island, as saying "I was stunned and angry to learn that my email account has been hacked and I was sending email messages to my loved ones asking for money."

The message written in poor English appealed that he was on a holiday trip to Manila, Philippines and was looted of all his cash and belongings. Hence, he urged a monetary help of $1,950 to pay-off the hotel bills. However, Pickersgill who resides in Salvage, Bonavista Bay was home and safe and said that his brother alerted took the lead in informing him of the unfortunate hack.

He felt his brother was panicking but when he checked his email, he found large number of messages and his phone also started ringing soon.

Pickersgill is keeping good humor about the episode in spite of all the inconvenience of resetting all passwords and notifying family members and friends.

Security experts comment that it's disturbing that Pickersgill was struck by what is called as the stranded abroad scam email.

In this particular scam, fraudsters hack an email account and send an email to all the contacts in the address book of the account holder with false claims about being marooned and asking for money.

As the emails are being sent from webmail address of the hacked victim and probably include his/her real name with email signature, at least some recipients may believe the content of the email. However, many will soon understand that something is wrong because they may be aware that their friend hasn't gone abroad as alleged or they may deduce the email as a fraud. Experts elaborate that even if merely one recipient out of the big address book gets tricked and sends money trying to help a friend who is in dire needs, the scheme will pay off well.

Therefore, experts advise that one should be careful of such fake emails and one should check all webmail accounts regularly to ensure that they have not been compromised.

» SPAMfighter News - 5/14/2015