It claims that wolfpeace, known here as Shelly or shalimar is stranded in Spain and needs money.
As Shelly is approximately 50 feet from me here in Indianapolis, I know that to be untrue.
Wen I tried to forward it to her at the wolfpeace address, I was told ... Your e-mail is being returned to you because there was a problem with its delivery. The reason your mail is being returned to you is ... Your e-mail is being returned to you because there was a problem with its delivery. The reason your mail is being returned to you is ... Your mail could not be delivered because the recipient is not accepting any mail. If you feel you received this in error, please contact
the recipient directly and ask them to check their email settings.
***********************************
----- Original Message ------
Received: Tue, 16 Jul 2013 07:22:07 AM EDT
From: "wolfpeace"
To:
Subject: Help Needed
Hello,
How are you doing ? Sorry I didn't inform you about my travelling to spain for a program, I'm presently in Spain and am having some difficulties here because i misplaced my wallet on my way to the hotel where my money and other valuable things like my credit cards and ATM cards were kept. I have called my credit card company to Stop my cards immediately,But where my problem lies is that it will take another 72HOURS to get me a replacement. I would want you to assist me with a loan of $1,500 to sort-out my hotel bills and to get myself home. I will appreciate whatever you can afford to assist me with and I promise to reimburse you as soon I get home,let me know if you can be of any help? ASAP.
Anticipating you reply at the earliest to my request.
Thanks
Shelly
Holly
***********************************
Your e-mail is being returned to you because there was a problem with its
delivery. The reason your mail is being returned to you is ... your mail could not be delivered because the
recipient is not accepting any mail. If you feel you received this in
error, please contact the recipient directly and ask them to check their
email settings.
Comments
Thanks Holly!
I figured as much. I hope this won't be too difficult to remedy.
Argh! Hackers!
hugs
Grover
*sighs*
Someone got an address book. *sighs*
Didn't figure it was legit... And, would you believe there was a segment on NPR yesterday on this very topic (and someone called in to talk about an e-mail she received - supposedly from a friend who was stranded in the Philapines.
Glad you know it happened.
Annette
for a friend of mine
She in London England, according to the email. What's even funnier about it, she was planning a trip to London England for a month or two later. I reminded her to not lose her wallet this time.
I wish
I wish I was in Spain. Hey I wish I was where the sun never sets and its rains money every day. And my cousin the Sheik wishes to meet you in person. Just send $2K to have a first class ticket sent to you. Address to follow shortly. :)
Glad you didn't fall for it, even if Shelly was standing next to you.
Digging into it a bit more...
A. they blocked her from receiving any emails on the wolfpeace address
B. erased her address book
She got hold of AOL, and ended up having to pay $190 to have them rebuild everything, provide full protection for one year, and, we think, notify everyone in her address book that she was hacked and not to send her any money or reply on this issue.
I'd like to say that any time you receive a request for money by email from anyone, to verify the request is legit by some other means, phone you know of that does not require you getting it via the questionable email address, use of another email address, etc.
Holly
It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice.
Holly
Hey this sounds like a good
Hey this sounds like a good business plan for AOL. Make it look like your customer has been hacked. Charge them $$$ to fix it. Go on to next customer, repeat. Who is the parent company of AOL these days? Maybe we should buy in?
Kris
{I leave a trail of Kudos as I browse the site. Be careful where you step!}
Make sure your password is not too easy!
The number one way for these types to get into your email is through pure guessing. They did that once for me, merely mining my address book rather than screwing everything up. I changed it pronto!
Never use a single word as a password. Add some digits, and preferably a non-alphanumeric character or two. I think of something I can remember, like a long word or short phrase that is at least 8 characters, then change a few characters into numbers and punctuation. Simple things such as $ for s, @ for a, 1 for i, etc. It may look obvious to you once you've made it, but those password search bots just won't go that in-depth before moving on.
SuZie
Even funnier
It happened to a friend of mine and I'm just outside London. IIRC someone actually asked which hotel they were at so they could offer physical help (suspecting it was fake) strangely enough they said no, just send the money.
Hugs
Cat
-
You can't choose your relatives but you can choose your family.
Today of All Days
I would not be in Spain today 07/16/2013 because today is Tishah B'Av (9th of Av [Hebrew calendar], the anniversary of the destruction of both Temples. It is also the day of our last day in Spain and the Sicilies in 1492(Muslims were expelled in 1493), England in 1199 and the "Final Solution" in 1941.
My prayer for all of us (myself included) on this day of pain and anger is for each of us to be a mench (genuinely good person).
shalimar
If anyone tried that with MY email...
Well let me just say anyone of MY acquaintances who sent money, would DESERVE to be conned. The likelihood of ME being anywhere but in my hometown is SO low that it would take several university math departments to calculate the infinitesmality of the odds.(I think I just coined a new word.)
with love,
Hope
Once in a while I bare my soul, more often my soles bear me.
Me too
I have ended up a home body also. I rarely travel far from my surrounds - Home, Work, Shop - that is.
And Eternal's word "infinitesmality" - definitely a good word to describe between slim and none....
Carla
"May you live in Interesting Times" is a promise, not a threat!
not me
Got the e-mail this morning looked at it. then marked it as a phishing scam.
Sorry Shelly.
Well
At least it didn't also contain "As a good Christian, could you..."
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
Spanish prisoner
This scam precedes the internet by several centuries. There are usually giveaways in the text. If you speak English rather than American, the use of words like "cell" ("mobile" in English) or geographic redundancies like "Paris, France" (we KNOW where Paris is!) give the scam away very quickly.
However, there can be few better clues than having the "stolen identity" sitting next to you.
Kudos!
Why Not Gay Paris, Y'all
Here in the U S there are places like Paris, Texas, Birmingham, Alabama, Toledo, Ohio, Syracuse and Rome, New York.
You may add to the list.
Indeed
Which is why Americans say "London, England"
And why Brits don't.
Unless they're talking to a
Unless they're talking to a Canadian. To them, London is in Ontario.
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
Nope
Very, very few Brits would ever say anything other than just 'London', even then. That was what I was driving at in my first comment here: these scams are sent to people all over the world, and tailored slightly to catch varying nationalities. They are almost always written, however, in some form of American even when sent to a UK target, and that is why the "Paris, France" bit is so clear evidence of a scam. As I have said, other words like "cell" for mobile phone are certainly never used in the UK, so for us it is really easy to point, laugh and say "Lagos, Nigeria?"
For North Americans, however...
The scam is called the 'Spanish Prisoner' and is very old:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Prisoner