esrosedotblog

NEW SCAM

Or maybe an old one that is just new to me.

I wrote an email to a friend the other day. i used two addresses because one of them gives me trouble sometimes.

This morning I got an email from the one address that said:

Hello,
How's work on your end? This has had to come in a hurry and it has left me in a devastating state.I am in some terrible situation and I'm really going to need your urgent help. Yesterday, unannounced, I came to visit a new researchers' complex in London,United Kingdom . Well we actually got robbed in the Hotel I booked in and they made away with my wallet (which included my cash, diaries and credit cards). My cellphones were not brought along since I did not get to roam them before coming over. The phone cables have been burnt including internet connection cables and the Hotel's database has been compromised as well. So all I can do now is pay cash and get out of here quickly. I do not want to make a scene of this which is why I did not call the office or my house, this is embarassing enough.
Please I want you to lend me a sum of 1000pounds, just to clear my Hotel bills and get the next plane home. The Consulate only cleared me of my travelling documents and
ticketing since I came in as a tourist and not on official purpose. I shall have your money reimbursed immediately on my return. I'll be waiting on you at the Hotel lobby for your mail.
I look forward to hearing from you soon,

Best Regards

It was early. On my first reading I reacted as though it might be real. Then I read it again. Stilted. Not his style. Improbable. And "best regards"?

I sent him a copy to his other address.

He quickly replied that "no it is not me".

So. Someone has intercepted my email to him and has used the exchange of two email addresses to write a scam letter.

This has never, ever happened to me. I have had lots of email from various parts of Africa and so on but these are always of the "thousands" of addressees category. Shots in the dark.

This one is obviously right out of our recent exchange.

My wireless is locked now. I wonder if my friend's is. He is running it down.

In any case, I won't be using that address again.

Labels: internet, scams