I'm in some kind of deep mess right now,my family & i came down here to London,England for a short vacation to visit a resort and got mugged at gun point last night at the park of the hotel where we stay.All cash,credit cards and cell were stolen off me.I've been to the embassy and the Police here but they're not helping issues at all,our flight leaves today and I'm having problems settling the hotel bills.We've got to get him that money so he can leave the hotel!
The hotel manager won't let me leave until i settle the hotel bills(1,550GBP) now am freaked out.Please reply and let me if can you have the money wire to me through western union i promise to pay back as soon as i get back home.
Thanks
[Ambulance Driver's Name]
In all seriousness, I think what bothers me most about this kind of spam crap is that obviously people fall for it. I mean, yeah, it bugs the hell out of me that someone's using my friend's name in an attempt to scam money off me; however, if it's a friend who's close, I'd know if he was in England (AD is not, to the best of my knowledge, in Jolly Olde England), and if he's not close, then shame on me for sending $3,000 over a wire. But apparently people fall for this BS, because these sorts of things keep happening...
Besides, AD will tell you to send them money to him directly... ;)
That is all.
13 comments:
I received the same message two days ago - but from "Jenny Trumbull".
Do you suppose it matters that I don't know anyone by that name?
Unpossible! Guns are illegal in England, aren't they?
My nephew received one of these purportedly from a friend that he just happened to be talking to online at the time. He had some fun playing with scammers. Wonder if he has a link?
Visa: 4856936451178355 Security code:433
I finally got it paid off and really don't want to see it get near my limit of $25000 again. The bank said "Quincy Argyle Jones of 2311 Beech Street, Madison you need to be careful about this and your other credit card."
Oh, good idea. Use the other card: 4392600372601764 (901) instead. Not as high of a limit, but it is a prettier card. Has kitties on it.
Oh and for some reason I feel like mentioning my social security number: 985-55-0182
Hope that helps!
If I were in England and has been mugged, I'd be a) begging for bail money because I took the mugger's gun and shot him with it, self-defense being frown on in today's U.K, or b) be begging for copies of Guns and Ammo to read while I convalesce in the hospital, because Plan A failed.
But if any of my friends were dumb enough to fail for that phishing attempt, I've got a direct PayPal link right there on the blog. ;)
Yeah, it happens more and more... AOL, Yahoo, company email, pretty much ALL of them...
+1 ViolentIndifference
A word to the wise: the Bad Guys are combing Facebook to build tables of who knows who. Combine that with searches for email addresses (pretty easy to get for most folks), and you have built-in Phishing attacks.
If you get one of these, DO NOT REPLY. Instead, forward the message to a known good address for the seeming sender, with a "ZOMG I didn't know you went to England" comment. They'll email you back and let you know if they need to be bailed out or something *cough*Kelly*cough*
I thought you were prohibited from leaving the country as a condition of your parole, AD.
Worse, when you post online that you are going on vacation, guess who gets robbed next. And my GPS does not have MY house as it's Home address, but some other poor schlub several doors away.
Oh, and I can vouch for AD's PayPal...
It's odd how many people I know that have been robbed at gunpoint in England. First Alan, now AD. That place sure is dangerous.
This happened to an acquaintance of mine recently when his yahoo mail password was compromised and the account taken over. Everyone in his address book got a similar message, though thankfully no one was taken in by it.
Use unique, complex passwords and a password manager such as "Keepass".
I remember a con like that going around a couple of years ago; sounds like it has resurfaced.
If I'd seen that my reply would have been "Where are you in London? I've got good plastic." Plus I've seen enough pictures of his honourableness to recognise him.
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