Scammers Deceive Yahoo! Mail Users with Personalized E-mail Scam

According to security experts, users of social networking websites like Yahoo are increasingly becoming victims of personalized e-mail scam as hackers are targeting individual accounts. Scammers first attack user's accounts and then use these accounts to exploit netizens to make huge bucks. Two such cases, wherein Yahoo users were tricked, have recently taken place.

First case is of Marcellia Henry, a resident of St. Maarten, Philipsburg (Netherlands). She is also a representative for the Netherlands Antilles branch of the UNESCO. Her account was hacked and all the people in her contact list were sent a scam e-mail with "Reply Soon" written in the subject line.

The text of the spam e-mail was pretty interesting, claiming that Henry forgot to pick her handbag from the taxi, which contained her passport, documents, money, and all other valuable things. Thus, she had got stuck in Nigeria, and was in need of immediate aid. The swindler asks for US$ 2,300 that is to be sent via MoneyGram so that she may overcome all the problems.

Henry said that her friends were indeed ready to wire money to help her out after they received the e-mail. Some of them even contacted the Dutch consulates and African embassies to look into the matter and provide her with required assistance, as per the news published by THEDAILYHERALD.COM on September 17, 2009.

In the second case as well, hackers tricked a woman account holder of Yahoo. She belongs to Netherlands, and her account was hacked in the second week of September 2009 and personalized e-mails were sent to her friends. Herein also an appealing story was constructed to easily convince her friends or colleagues. The fraudulent e-mail claimed that the lady got stuck in UK and required money.

Feeling tricked and abused, both women decided to tell people to exercise caution against such Internet scams. They also hoped that such a thing doesn't repeat with any one else.

In the meantime, Yahoo! Mail asked all its users to immediately inform it about the suspicious e-mails. A form has been posted on the Yahoo website that can be filled by the users for reporting "mail abuse". This form will enable Yahoo to track the scammers and conduct further investigations, safeguarding its maximum users from being cheated.

Related article: Scammers Exploit Tax System Resulting in ID Theft

» SPAMfighter News - 10/8/2009