Police Bewares the Internet Users through Scam E-mails and Phone Calls

Police are requesting the community to remain alert of scam email and phone calls as a 92-year-old man transferred an amount of £1,000 from his account as he received a mail denoting the requirement of the cash by a friend in trouble, as reported by eastbourneheral.co.uk in August 20, 2012.

The victim got an email purported to be sent by his friend in Eastbound, by which as he was in Spain, he urgently required the money as he losses all his own items. The victim transferred £1,000 through Western Union with the hope of helping his ailing friend but it then transpired his pal's email address, been stolen and utilized by the scammer. The hacker then mailed the victim in the same day for sending him more money. With this message, the victim was bewildered and called upon his friend to find if he was still in struck in Eastbound or not.

According to PC Victoria Pidgley from East Sussex Response Investigation Team he had recently handled victims who have been fooled into leaving with significant money by the peoples of reputed company," according to eastbourneherald.co.uk dated august 20, 2012.

unluckily, the old man became the victim of stranded abroad email scam, officials said that it is a type of advance fee fraud, more commonly called as 419 scam which works like this: a genuine email account is compromised (like the victim's friend's account in this case) through phishing or the account details were stolen as part of breach of some popular company. The scammer sends emails to all the contacts of the stolen account which says that the "friend" is trapped somewhere overseas (Spain here). They need money since their valuables are lost. Kindly help with reasonable amount of money.

In nutshell, the old man is not the only person who becomes the victim by stranded abroad email scam in last few days. In the third week of august 2012, Mandeville (New Orleans, Louisiana) Mayor Donald Villere awoke to concerns that he was in distress overseas. Scam email were made such a way to make others think that Villere were trapped in Spain and need money so that he can go back home.

Related article: Police Catches Group of Online Thieves

» SPAMfighter News - 8/27/2012