Scammers Compromise E-mail Account Belonging to Folly Beach Mayor

Scammers lately compromised the e-mail account of Tim Goodwin, Mayor of Folly Beach (South Carolina, USA) from where they dispatched fake e-mails urging recipients to send a loan immediately. Thestate.com published this dated November 26, 2011.

The electronic mail supposedly from the Mayor says that while currently in London, UK along with family on a brief holiday, they're stranded since 4 robbers with weapons attacked them when they were returning to their hotel they were putting up.

Goodwin who hasn't left his residence as also certainly not been in Europe lately, stated that he wished nobody really wired cash to the anonymous hackers.

He lamented that even his contact list was erased, while the hackers recreated his e-mail account in order that anybody attempting at replying to his address, in reality sent the message to the fraudsters. That e-mail account happened to be bellsouth.net, he added.

Furthermore, Goodwin stated that, on November 25, 2011, he was with an expert for two-and-half hours in restoring his e-mail as well as PC back to his charge. Additionally, calls kept coming in throughout the day wherein his well-wishers anxiously enquired about him, he said. Abcnews4.com reported this on November 26, 2011.

The Mayor recalled that the day got spent getting to determine a way out from the criminal hackers, and since they erased each of his contacts, he couldn't even e-mail them alerting about the hoax message.

Importantly, as recommendation from the IT expert, people should use an e-mail channel that's more secure, Goodwin states.

He also says that he's happy being able to spread the word as well as help people from getting victimized with the above type of scam, suggesting that incase any e-mail recipient finds anything suspicious in the message then he/she should summarily disregard it.

However, it isn't the case with Tim Goodwin alone, a public figure, whom scammers have victimized via this fashion. During September 2011, hackers infiltrated the e-mail belonging to Graham Sycamore, Councilor of Invercargill City (New Zealand) and dispatched one false message to numerous ids on his address-book stating he was inside Spain, stuck as also in need of cash.

Related article: Scammers Exploit Tax System Resulting in ID Theft

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