Guernsey’s Ex-Lieutenant-Governor Victimized with Scam E-mail

A new e-mail scam has reportedly targeted Sir Fabian Malbom ex-Lieutenant-Governor of Guernsey, published bbc.co.uk dated November 25, 2011.

Actually, one e-mail purportedly from Sir Fabian reached several people's mailboxes, including Carol Steere the education minister of Guernsey. The e-mail indicated that robbers attacked the ex-Governor at Barcelona (Spain) who now required the e-mail recipient to send him money.

But, the e-mail is surely one scam, confirms Government House.

Meanwhile according to Steere, the minister knew about such scams wherein people dispatched an e-mail to the unwitting user stating that they were in problem. Audaciously, the scammers sending the e-mail put in one phone-number too along with the number of the hotel where the e-mail writer apparently stayed. Bbc.co.uk published this.

However, Andy Goodall, Guernsey Police's Crime Reduction Advisor said that incase anyone received the above kind of e-mail he should regard it as fraud that would solely mean expenditure for him. Bbc.co.uk reported this.

Unfortunately according to security researchers, the scam, which targeted Sir Fabian, is called the "Stranded Overseas Scam" or "Stranded Traveler's Scam."

This scam is distinctively different because the scammers hack the e-mail account of the victim (like Sir Fabian), access his contact list and subsequently dispatch one fraudulent e-mail to the ids of his colleagues/friends (similar to the way Carol Steere received). And since the e-mail recipients know the victim i.e. the so-called e-mail sender, friends have greater possibilities instead of simple strangers towards getting duped via the e-mail and transferring cash that actually reach the cyber-criminals.

Researchers explain that despite friends of the victim answering the e-mail with cautious doubt the cunning scammers by accessing the other messages in the victim's mailbox gain information about him that they subsequently use for making fake replies appear credible, thereby enhancing the possibilities of conning a greater number of the contacts. Hence, people getting such scam e-mails mustn't answer them.

Meanwhile, the kind of e-mail scam targeting a politician like Sir Fabian isn't the lone one. For, scammers reportedly infiltrated the account of Tim Goodwin, Mayor of Folly Beach (South Carolina, USA) and dispatched fake e-mail requests about a loan, immediately.

Related article: Growing Number of Online Attacks Creating Trouble for Experts

» SPAMfighter News - 12/3/2011