‘London E-mail Scam’ Targets Family in Massachusetts

The Amesbury (Massachusetts, US) based Kimberly Potts family was recently targeted by the notorious "London E-mail Scam."

Potts, who was scanning through the e-mails in her Yahoo account, noticed a message that her son Justin sent using the caption "hi mom." Incidentally, Justin is on duty in Iraq.

Apologizing to bother his mom, Justin apparently writes that he is currently in the UK in connection with some business work; he has lost his wallet and passport, as reported by eagletribune on January 11, 2010.

Continuing further, the message states that while officials at the US Embassy are assisting Justin in finding his passport, he needs a confirmation from the bank so that he may use his account. Moreover, his immediate concern is to return home by the earliest flight, the e-mail indicates.

Potts said that Justin urged his family to call him at certain given numbers and to send him some cash.

She also says that if her son had any changes in his task, he would have instantly informed her over phone. Moreover according to Potts, the e-mail sounded very formal but the grammar was not of her.

Another red signal about the e-mail was that its text used capital letters. Potts says that Justin never uses capital letters because he always types hurriedly.

Furthermore, Potts was astonished when she opted for "chat." She found the online crooks, who had in reality hijacked Justin's account to send scam e-mails through it.

Potts says, it was just when she queried certain things that only Justin knew, the Internet thieves became evident. Subsequently, after more than 3-hours, she was able to know that her son was alright.

Potts, who has become more careful online since the incident, got in touch with the military as well as other families, and asked that they must not reply to the scam e-mail.

James Schultz, a Police Detective, suggests that Internet users should have a code term so that members of the family can identify the message when sent from their relatives, as reported by Thedailyintemoflynn on January 14, 2010.

Related article: “Loopholes did not cause online banking thefts”: ICBC

» SPAMfighter News - 1/21/2010