Indian Fashion Designer Targeted by Spammers

Security reports released on June 5, 2009 revealed that Delhi-based fashion designer, Rina Dhaka, was recently hit by a fake e-mail scam.

Reportedly, someone infiltrated into Rina's account or accessed her contact list using malicious software and distributed fake e-mails. On June 2, 2009, the fraudster might have accessed the designer's complete ID information, even the contact numbers stored on her mobile.

Next day, i.e. on June 3, 2009, several people on her contact list got an e-mail which claimed that Rina was in London and had misplaced her wallet; thus, she was stuck there. In that fake e-mail, Rina was virtually requesting the recipient to give her an amount of $2000 by means of "Fedez Money Transfer Ltd". The e-mail promised that the designer would pay back the amount on returning home (India).

After that, Rina's clients started calling her up to know about her well-being and verify the genuineness of the e-mail. In her statement given to The Times of India on June 5, 2009, Rina stated that she have a good number of clients from non-English speaking countries, like Japan and Germany. One of her German client contacted Indian Embassy in England about the matter. The same was the reaction of Japanese and American clients. She was also phoned by a friend, who is a film producer, and his wife from their shooting location.

Rina Dhaka, who is a tech-savvy person, added that the fake e-mail appeared very odd in many a things. Pointing out the errors in the e-mails, she said that first of all her name was wrongly spelled as "Dhana" instead of "Dhaka" and secondly, "FedEx" was spelled as "Fedez". Actually, a vigilant netizen, Rina Dhaka, contacted FedEx in this regard.

In the meantime, Western Union Money Transfer reminded customers that there's no connection between it and the Internet scam. The company said that its services are quite apt in transferring cash to a relative needing it urgently, not to any person who is just listed in sender's contact list.

However, Rina did not lodge any complaint as she said that things have sorted out.

Related article: Indian Financial Industry Facing Rising Online Fraud

» SPAMfighter News - 6/8/2009