Calis Beach and Fethiye Turkey Discussion Forum
General Topics => Computer Problems & Questions, Virus/Scam Warnings => Topic started by: Scunner on April 30, 2013, 10:03:10 AM
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Ian's SMS topic reminded me of a spam email I received last year - now we all know about the Nigerian prince with $80 million to sneak out of the country and you can have half for helping, and we spot them a mile off - but have you had any that caught you, or had you thinking it was genuine, at least for a while?
I find the ones that can fool you (at least for a few seconds) don't rely on content, they rely on timing. I have had emails supposedly from Paypal that arrived immediately after me being on the Paypal website, or paying at Ebay for something using Paypal - same for HSBC. It is this coincidence that makes it 1000 times more believable to me.
But one had me absolutely convinced for a minute. It was well written, and was "from" someone I knew. It said they were on holiday in Marbella or somewhere and had been attacked and mugged. They had lost passports, money, credit cards and had nothing - and he "had tears in his eyes as he was typing" - the police station had kindly let him use a computer to contact people to help and send emergency money.
Well, I'm no novice on the internet and I was falling for this hook line and sinker! Here was a guy I knew and he needed help and he had decided I was the man to help. The fact that I only vaguely know him was the clue I was missing - why would he choose me to contact? There must be brothers, parents, best friends, children to contact long before me -but strangely at first that little matter actually added to the effect, almost like 'things must be serious if he's had to contact me'!!!
Be careful out there guys :D
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here |I sit in a Marbella soup kitchen still awaiting someone to bail me out :( call yourself a friend....?
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I knew Baz would sort it
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Some good advice from Zone Alarm here;
http://www.zonealarm.com/blog/index.php/2013/03/email-hacked-here-is-what-to-do
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Scunner, I had the same email from a friend as you had. It says she was on holiday in the Caribbean and had lost all her money and was really stuck and would I send her £250.00 and she would pay me back next week. There was even instructions on how to pay. Luckily I had seen her a few days before. I rang her at her work and told her. Apparently, someone had hacked her B.T. Account and sent the same message to everyone in her address book. She changed her email address and she also had to contact all her friend to let them know she was O.K.