WARNING - Scam email asking for funds

[nectarine]

I have received this email from an acquaintance and it reads as follows:

Dear,

I am in hurry writing you this message and I hope you get it on time, sorry I didn't inform you about my trip to Spain for a Conference. It has been a very sad and bad moment for me here, the present condition I found myself is very hard for me to explain. I am really stranded here in Spain because when I was in a cab last night heading to the hotel, suddenly we just heard a bang of Egg splashed at the front screen of the car by the driver side, Immediately the driver turned on the wipers and spray water in order to clean it, unfortunately, the egg became milky and spread all over the screen and was unable to see any further, so there is nothing else the driver can do than to stop the car from moving, as he stopped the car by the road side, unespetedly, a group of boys rushed out and rubbed me and the driver ,they ran away with my wallet where I kept all my document and my money including my phone, Presently I have limited access to internet, I will like you to assist me ugently with a soft loan of €1,750 to sort-out my hotel bills and to get myself back home. I have spoken to the embassy here but they are not responding to the matter effectively, I will appreciate whatever you can afford to assist me with, I'll Refund the money back to you as soon as I get home without any delay.Please write me back so that I can send you details to make transfer by MoneyGram or western union.

The 'reply address' is actually that of my friend, who's account has obviously been hacked and they have no knowledge of this email being sent out under their name. Googling this kind of email, I find it is a well-known scam and if you reply to it then you will get another email (again from your friend's hacked account) giving details of how to wire money. The words "soft loan" are almost usually used.

THIS IS A WELL KNOWN SCAM .....

So a warning to others. If you receive this kind of email then don't reply, delete, or contact the sender by phone and advise them to change their email password.

[bubbles]

I especially love the bit where the group of boys rush out and rubbed me!!!

[nectarine]

just an update ... my friend rang me back and cannot access his email account. The hackers have changed his password, so he has to contact Microsoft Hotmail support and go through security to get it back. He told me his email account has a lot of confidential and private data that he cannot get hold of. So a warning .. !!

(and, yes, I loved it that he was 'rubbed' as well !! )

[Jay]

I don't have any friends that would write a mail like that! Dead give-away.

I had my Spotify account hacked a few weeks ago - why anyone would want to do that with a free account beats me. Really annoying for your friend though - no doubt they have learned a valuable lesson.

[Iceni]

An interesting reflection of modern life. Mobile phone has been stolen but rather than conatct a friend from a phone box, send an e-mail.

The fact that these and the "Nigerian" mails keep coming suggests that the old adage about a fool and his money must still be true.

John

[Quillan]

[quote user="Iceni"]An interesting reflection of modern life. Mobile phone has been stolen but rather than conatct a friend from a phone box, send an e-mail. The fact that these and the "Nigerian" mails keep coming suggests that the old adage about a fool and his money must still be true. John[/quote]

Sadly you will never know who and how many people have been caught by these scams even though some have been around since way back when. They must have some success otherwise they wouldn't bother.

[bubbles]

Does that apply to all those Viagra spam emails too do you think?

[nectarine]

An update: my friend's account has been hacked and he's dealing with this. Meanwhile I replied to the email, offering funds .... just to see what kind of reply I would get. This is the response:

I'm very happy to read back from you, pls use the address below to make the transfer by Western Union or by Money Gram.

Receiver's Name: (edited: my friend's name ...)

Address: Plaza Mediterraneo 8 - Palma De Mallorca, Spain

Please get back to me with transfer details below as soon as the transfer has been done.

Order Number or mtcn:

AMT SENT :

SENDERS NAME :

With kind regards, Yours sincerely.

So I thought "right, I have an address" which, googling it, turns out to be a hotel/hostel. But I should like to report this somehow - Western Union aren't interested, Hotmail are aware of it but only in the capacity of email hacking, and I don't speak enough Spanish to report this to the Spanish police authorities who, presumably, could investigate the address.

Any ideas?

[Jay]

[quote user="nectarine"]

Any ideas?[/quote]

Yeah, drop it you are wasting your time.

[nectarine]

sorry but I don't think I am wasting my time, if perhaps one scammer can be stopped. After all, if you had unwittingly fallen victim to a scam wouldn't you have wished that an earlier victim had reported it or taken action?

So perhaps I am chasing something that might end nowhere, but at least I'm doing something about it.

So suggestions welcome about where I could forward the email to for someone to take action on this.

[Quillan]

I know how you feel.

The problem is that you have to deal with the police in the country of origin. Normally this is very difficult with the Internet as you may not know which country. The other problem you face is that you don't need an address to collect a Western Union payment, just your ID (passport etc) and the transaction number(s). I suspect the address is real as you have discovered but the spammer has just taken it out of a phone book. The only way this can be dealt with is by the police waiting in the office nearest to where the address is and for them to pounce when given 'the wink' by a teller when they attempt to take the money. Even then they probably won't go to the nearest one anyway, they may even attempt to draw the money in another part of Spain or another country even. I think it's highly unlikely that a visit to the address would achieve anything as I doubt very much that the person is actually there.

As a side issue I have thought for many years that Western Union should be held responsible for people who get hooked on these scams and part with their money through them but nobody seems to care and they certainly don't give a toss.

One thing I do if I am sceptical about something is to say the only way I can send or receive money is via PayPal which of course requires verification and the credit card details are checked against the stolen card list. Nothing is 100% fool proof but usually if you suggest this and its a scam you never hear from them again.

[Sunday Driver]

You can submit a 'citizen information report' to the Grupo de Delitos Telemáticos which is the Spanish national police agency for computer related crime

https://www.gdt.guardiacivil.es/webgdt/

Bear in mind that you will be one of the 20 million or so other people who have received this scam e-mail so I think you'll find the authorities will already be aware of it.  The originating ISP will have probably closed the account by now and the address you were given will be a simple mail drop which is probably already known to the police as it will have been used to acquire false ID documentation for the purpose of fraudulently opening bank accounts, obtaining credit - as well as cashing your Western Union payment transfer......[;-)]