Noted Politician Victimized with ‘Stranded Traveler’ Scam

Deputy Chairman, Theo Sambuaga responsible for Indonesia's Golkar Political Party reportedly was victimized with a scam e-mail recently, following hackers who compromised his account.

Actually when friends started calling him that Theo became aware of the scam.

In the said e-mail supposedly from Theo, it was written that while in Sheffield (UK), he was having certain problems as he misplaced his money bag while returning to his lodgings. The bag contained his credit card, money and mobile-phone. Moreover, being unable to have full facility of the Internet, he was e-mailing the recipient a request to help him by extending a $2,450 loan so that he could clear his hotel bills as well as return home.

Understandably, on receipt of this e-mail, a friend of Theo in USA answered the message in an attempt to find out whether anybody would give a return message. Surprisingly, somebody did, giving directions to use Western Union to wire the money.

Theo stated that it could occur with anybody; therefore, it was necessary that everybody remained extra cautious. Thejakartaglobe.com reported this on June 18, 2011.

Evidently, Theo was a victim of the scam called "Stranded Traveler" fraud. It's characteristically the 419 Nigerian scam also referred to as the "advance-fee fraud."

Specialists on Internet safety explain that scammers, who cheat people into wiring cash to their accounts, feign a tale of somebody urgently requiring help, just like in Theo's case, because he lost his money-bag, which makes him incapable of returning home from a far of place, like Sheffield in the aforementioned instance. Moreover, the scam appears increasingly credible in case the e-mails get dispatched from somebody's account familiar to would be victims. Meanwhile, it's because of this reason that scamsters keep utilizing hijacked accounts, the specialists observe.

Eventually, it isn't Theo Sambuaga as the sole political person whom Internet fraudsters targeted. During July 2011, Moses Mzila Ndlovu Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs in Zimbabwe discovered that scammers compromised his e-mail account and exploited it for dispatching messages to each and every of the acquaintances on his address book, asserting he required cash for returning home from London.

Related article: Net Alert Announced with Rise of Cyber-crime in Bahrain

» SPAMfighter News - 6/28/2011