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Hotmail Account of Export Councilwoman Hacked

The Hotmail e-mail account of Melanie Litz, Export Councilwoman of U.S got breached during the 2nd week of August 2010.

Those behind the hack used Litz's account to dispatch a fake message intended for all the e-mail ids in her address book. It read that during a holiday tour in London, someone mugged Litz at gunpoint, taking away her cash, credit cards and luggage. Therefore, she was in urgent need of money to return home.

However, Litz was not in London, rather safely doing in Westmoreland County, Virginia (USA).

Incidentally, when Litz checked for new e-mails in her account, she became aware of the event. She stated that whenever she attempted at accessing her account, it said that the account was no longer active. Pittsburghlive.com published this on August 14, 2010. Additionally Litz said she hoped no one attempted at answering the e-mail.

She further stated that she had over 100 ids on her address book; therefore the fake e-mail might have gone to a huge 150 people.

One of them was Attorney Michael Calder who's Export's Mayor and he stated that the style of writing in the e-mail suggested the sign that it was clearly a fake.

According to him, the writer was somebody who hardly seemed to know English. Pittsburglove.com reported this.

Meanwhile, Hotmail is doing an examination of the hoax e-mail while it has closed Litz's account temporarily.

Moreover, according to security researchers, the deceptive e-mail, which hit Litz, is a standard 419 Nigerian fraud message, also called advance-fee fraud phishing e-mail. This type of e-mail cheats people into wiring cash and for that the scammers tell a false story of somebody requiring financial help like in the case of Litz, enumerating the reason that the person lost his/her money-bag and is unable to return home from a foreign country.

The security researchers further state that fraudsters in trying to make the scam still more persuasive send the hoax message from a person the victims know. Consequently, they keep on utilizing hijacked accounts.

Thus, for stopping hackers from infiltrating people's e-mail accounts, specialists advise that users should set strong passwords.

Related article: Hotmail Account Holders Vulnerable to Latest E-mail Scam

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