Galway City Councilor Victimized With E-Mail Fraud

According to galwaynews.ie, which published news on May 13, 2011, Peter Keane Councilor of Galway City (Ireland) has had his Gmail account compromised even though his account password was significantly strong.

In the aftermath, innumerable people on Keane's address list got a fraudulent electronic mail beginning with regrets from Keane that he had to write the e-mail in the given fashion. Seemingly Keane wrote that he was touring Scotland when muggers stole his bag that contained his credit cards, mobile phone, passport and other personal belongings.

Furthermore, he seemed to write that the embassy was willing to allow him to fly devoid of his passport; however, he required clearing the hotel expenses as well as buying his ticket. Thus he thought if his friend (e-mail recipient) would give him some money on loan so he could return home and indeed thereafter pay back the money.

Additionally, Keane seemed to write that he would tell his friend the details of how the money could be sent to him for, his financial assistance would let Keane take the next suitable aircraft to his home country. The e-mail also seemed to provide the phone number of Keane's hotel.

Disturbingly, in the above instance Keane is a target of the 419 or the advance-fee fraud scam wherein, the scammers in attempts to extort money out of potential victims fabricate a fake tale that somebody known to them requires monetary help since that person lost his wallet and wasn't able to return home from a far off region. The scam further appears trustworthy incase the e-mails reach probable victims from an address of a known individual and for this reason, scammers always hack into accounts for using them to spam fake e-mails, security researchers outline.

Nevertheless, multiple indications are present in these e-mails, which show that the messages are fraudulent, note the researchers. Spelling mistakes and grammatical errors are the first red flags.

Eventually, it isn't just politician Peter Keane whom hackers have attacked. Unidentified scammers infiltrated Bob Dvorsky Iowa State Senator's Yahoo account too during 2010 from where they dispatched similar scam e-mails in bulk.

Related article: Goal.com Still Contaminating Its Visitors

» SPAMfighter News - 5/20/2011