Major E-mail Scam Hits Sports Club in Riverina

A Riverina (NSW, Australia)-situated sports club known as Barellan United Football Club was recently extensively attacked when a complex scam targeted its members following the compromise of its e-mail id by a Nigerian online-fraudster, reported dailyadvertiser.com.au dated June 16, 2012.

Kim Hillman who's secretary of the Barellan Football Club stated that she felt horrible whilst her name as well as other personal particulars showed in an attachment to one bogus electronic mail dispatched to every member of the club. Dailyadvertiser.com.au published this.

Displaying a header "My Terrible Trip...Kim Hillman," the fake electronic mail asserted that Hillman, while touring London, was stranded following a theft of her wallet along with cell-phone and so needed USD1,850 as loan for clearing her hotel bills as well as returning home.

Thereafter where the plea ended, the e-mail showed Hillman's name along with telephone number as well as the electronic mail id and postal address of the club.

Kim Traynor, Crime-Coordinator with Griffith Police stated that the above scams were becoming increasingly sophisticated with different designs of the spurious e-mails that made them seem real. Dailyadvertiser.com .au published this.

Police investigators probing Hillman's case remarked that she'd been victimized with the "Stranded Abroad E-mail Fraud" wherein a friend e-mailed to all the contacts on his address book to tell he'd been robbed when he was journeying overseas and required their assistance for returning home, just like in Hillman's instance. Notably, while the e-mail sent was from a known id, the plea, which was totally bogus, was from an Internet-scammer.

However, there were typical indications in the said kind of scam e-mails that Police Officials outlined. These were: a request to send money from an acquaintance alternatively casual friend somebody who normally would not make such a request to the target person; and impractical claims about being in police's, hoteliers' or other officials' custody apparently, for failing towards meeting a pending bill.

Meanwhile, for not becoming a victim of such e-mail frauds, Police urge Internauts for first verifying the e-mail by calling their friend, seemingly in distress, and letting him know about the situation in order that rectification measures maybe adopted.

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» SPAMfighter News - 6/28/2012