Hackers Attack a Renowned Barrister in Auckland, New Zealand

Stuff.co.nz reported on 5th December, 2014 stating that friends and clients of a famous barrister of Auckland (New Zealand) namely Annabel Maxwell-Scott have been scammed as cybercriminals have hacked her email account.

Maxwell-Scott has announced publicly that she was not at all desperately ill in Malaysia and did not need any kidney and also warned people about the scam.

The scams known as "419 Scams" pre-date the Internet by a long way with letter variations going back to 1830.

Maxwell-Scott believed that she was struck by an email with a malware which entered in her computer and found her password for Google Gmail.

When she came to work on Monday, 1st December, 2014 she found herself locked out of Gmail as the person took control of her account.

The person asked for cash from everybody of her contact list by saying that she was ill and needed cash for a transplant.

She started getting calls from her friends and clients after the hacking.

A friend in Britain sent 1760 Pound (NZ$3543) to an account in Malaysia believing the email.

The above scam also called for Emergency scam works assuming that only fraction of people required to be tricked out of millions of emails sent through hacking of huge numbers of email accounts. Security experts explain that scammers earn millions of dollars in a month by scamming hundreds of thousands of contact lists of people.

The normal advice to the community is that anyone who has been asked for money or personal information either through phone or email should first ensure that the request is real.

Most email scams are run by West African gangs.

Besides Malaysia, Ukraine is often listed as the country where the person was attacked.

Therecord.com reported on 11th November, 2014 stating that among noted persons Maxwell-Scot is not the only one whose account has been hacked by scammers recently because former Kitchener MPP Wayne Wettlaufer, an incoming Waterloo (Ontario, Canada) Regional Councilor, was also apparently became victim of a similar email scam which alleged that he was robbed and needed money while spending holidays with his family in Ukraine.

» SPAMfighter News - 12/16/2014