Spammers Using Personalized Online Frauds to Attack Face Users

Gary Rifkin, a habitual user of Facebook, says that one day in August 2009 when he was browsing the social-networking site, he got a message from the instant messaging account of his friend Karen Cortell Reisman, as reported by Star-telegram on September 19, 2009.

As natural, Rifkin asked Reisman about her well-being to which she answered in the negative since someone in London had scared her with a gun and stole all her belongings including cash, cell-phone, credit card everything.

Panicked on receiving this reply, Rifkin proceeded to inquire if Reisman had the money to return home.

She answered that this was the main problem bothering her immensely. Therefore, she asked Rifkin to help her with some immediate finance about $1,300. She also suggested that he could send the money through wire transfer.

Consequently, Rifkin inquired about the place where he could transfer the money to which Reisman gave a London address. Suggesting his friend that she should wait for sometime, Rifkin concluded the online conversation.

However, Rifkin, who was vigilant and technically deft, didn't at all wire the money because he was sure that there was no Reisman at the other end but someone was impersonating her online. Actually, he was aware that his friend wasn't traveling but was in her Dallas (US) home.

Meanwhile, Reisman began receiving anxious calls from well-wishers and she later described the day as one when she got captured online via Facebook. In reality, she regained control over her password not until she contacted the Facebook security personnel, who said that Internet scammers had possibly compromised her e-mail account.

Citing Facebook along with the fact that scams increased in number and notoriety on the social network, Luis Corrons, Technical Director of PandaLabs, stated that they were all about cheating users of their money, as reported by Xinhuanet on September 21, 2009.

The scam, which attacked Reisman, presently represents the most wicked and disreputable online scam to hit Facebookers. Its sole objective was to extract abused users' money. Likewise, a Missouri woman was also recently scammed of $4,000 on Facebook when scammers used a similar trick.

Related article: Spammers Continue their Campaigns Successfully

» SPAMfighter News - 10/12/2009