Scam E-mail Targets Sudbury Resident

Harriet Carlson from Sudbury situated in Ontario, Canada has just been victimized with a scam e-mail, according to the news from cbc.ca published on December 7, 2011.

Actually, one e-mail got distributed on December 6, 2011 from Carlson's Hotmail account to all her contacts in her address book stating that she, while touring Spain, had fallen in trouble. Clearly, a hacker, who hijacked Carlson's account, dispatched the fake e-mail on behalf of her that stated that robbers attacked her at gunpoint leaving her stranded in Madrid. Therefore, she required money to be wired to her so she could return to Canada, the e-mail added.

But whereas family and friends of Carlson were aware about it as some fraud, others started e-mailing her anxious messages enquiring how they could assist.

For Carlson, it was a nightmare to tackle the scam, she says.

Apparently, the hackers widely distributed the e-mail in which Carlson seemingly stated that she couldn't even write to everyone as her e-mail account indicated of outbound e-mails to a saturation point. Cbc.ca reported this.

Unluckily, according to Police Officials, Carlson had been victimized with the "stranded overseas scam." This scam is a popular version of the notorious "Nigerian 419 scam" or "advance fee fraud," they say.

In this, the hacker, posing as the victim, dispatches a note from the victim's e-mail to all his friends on his address book. The note asserts that the sender immediately requires money after being mugged in a foreign country. But, since the e-mail is from someone close along with the urgency depicted in it, the recipient mayn't verify its sender thereby raising the chances of his believing the fraudulent message and getting trapped, officials explain.

However, as precaution, anybody getting the above kind of e-mail claiming to be from a friend must first check about its authenticity prior to dispatching any cash.

Conclusively, it isn't just Carlson who has been struck with the stranded abroad fraud during December 2011. For, a parish from Fox Valley (Appleton, Wisconsin) Father Quinn Mann was likewise struck with such an e-mail scam during the 1st-week of December 2011, it's reported.

Related article: Sixem Worm Striking World Cup

» SPAMfighter News - 12/16/2011