Posted on 03/14/2011 12:30:06 PM PDT by Leo Carpathian
Subject: Terrible Trip......Jxxxx XXXXXXXX
From: Jxxxxxxx
Date: Monday
To: undisclosed recipients: ;
I'm writing this with tears in my eyes,I came down to London England for a short vacation and i was mugged at gun point last night,all cash,credit cards and cell were stolen off,It was so scary just happy I still have my life and passport.
I've been to the embassy and the Police here thank God they are really helping with a return flight and our fight leaves in few hours from now,but we are only having problems settling our hotel bills before leaving I need you to loan me $1,650Usd to settle the hotel bills and also get a cab to the airport....I'll def refund it back to you as so as i get back home tomorrow..
Get back to me so I can tell you how to get the money to me here
Warm Regards. Jxxxxxxxx
Wow! Urgent email from a friend in distress:
From: Jxxxxxxx
Date Monday, March 14, 2011
To: me
Thanks for replying back you can wire the money to me through western-union all you need is name on my passport and location below.Please just wire any amount you have any amount you send will surely make a huge diffrence
Name: Jxxxxxxxxx
Address : 7 Albemarle Street, London W1S 4HQ, United Kingdom
Country: United kingdom
Kindly get back to me with the western union confirmation control number as soon as the money is been wired
Let know when you are going and how long it will take you to have it done
Warm Regards.
Jxxxxxxxx
I called J on the phone, no response. So I guess it is true. Stuck in London.
Trying to verify the email route, reading the emails, looks like J is in distress. Writing and punctuation are a bit off.
In the mean time, lets find out what it takes to setup WesternUnion account and procedure to wire the money. Jumped through the WU hoops, ready to wire some money from the credit card. Eamiling J, asking exact amount and to confirm email connection.
I get the phone call, very noisy line, voice almost uninteligible, sounded African-African, asking for confirmation number.
Back and forth few times. Asking to "give me time to do the transfer and get the number. Call me in 5 min."
Continuing the process with WU, use credit card for full amount, but it gets refused. (Thank you WU and CC)
Then I notice one extra letter in the email address and get suspicious, call customer service at WU.
IT'S A FRAUD!!!
Payment fortunately did not go through, credit card company flagged it and did not process the payment.
Scammer keeps calling me for the number. I keep asking his phone number and eventually get it: 44 702 409 8964
I call J again, and this time get him on the phone, safe at home, not stuck in England.
Turns out that scammers got the email and name from old FACEBOOK account, cancelled 2 years ago! Had access to some emails from the J address book and manufactured the email. Who would not want to help friend in distress, stuck at foreign country?
Sooo, the scam is: send the email to friend of "victim". Ask for cash wire transfer. Sounds sooo real. If you arrange cash transfer via WU and communicate the control number back to scammers, you are SCREWED. Thanks to WU and CC that they flagged and stopped this scam!!!
Hope you do not get taken, like I almost did.
I got a similar e-mail from my ex-boyfriend’s account a year or so ago. I knew instantly it was a scam as he would never go to London for a vacation.
I have had to delete emails from me to me!
Why stop there? Why not get rid of your computer or for that matter, not get out of bed in the morning?
I benefit from the fact that I have a very small group of friends and they don’t travel, so it’s quite easy for me to spot a scam like this. Still, be wary.
“Hope you do not get taken, like I almost did.”
My folks did, to the tune of $4K. Goes to show you, sometimes loyalty and the desire to help get the best of even former spooks. It took the third email for my dad to start questioning and make some background calls.
Colonel, USAFR
DO NOT click on the video link, or if you accidentally do click on the link DO NOT enter your Facebook password when it is requested, just back out of there quick. No harm done. It's simple, no one has a right to your password except you.
Nigerian scammer. NEVER, under any circumstances, send cash abroad. If you absolutely must help a friend, buy them a ticket on your credit card from an airline and be sure that it is refundable by you.
If you get a letter like this one, trash it.
44 is not necessarily a UK number. Mobile phone numbers in Nigeria can use it to re-direct calls to make it appear the person is in the UK when they are actually in Nigeria.
If a person requests a cash payment from WU/MG, its always a front to fleece you. If they won’t take a credit card payment, it always smells fishy.
Like the old, true and trite saying has it, “if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.” Be careful and exercise due diligence.
Some bottom-feeder hacked my facebook account yesterday morning with the exact same scam! I got about 15 calls from friends asking if it were true; that’s the incredulous part...come on now! Anyway, what the scammer did was get into my account, then change my password and email contact address to a new email address that I don’t have and that I never had. I changed my real email password and notified facebook. Right now, my facebook account is frozen. Only one person mentioned the discrepancy in the email address.
Free e-mail accounts can be hacked too and used by scammers to peddle their scams.
This is absolutly stupid...Anyone would know if a friend who is close enough to ask for money is or has been vacationing in Europe. Anyone would know if a friend of theirs knows how to write proper English, and how they speak and express themselves. A letter so poorly written is a sure tell tale sign of some foreigner trying to steal your money. Anyone with any sense knows not to believe these incredibly stupid requests. FReepers surely know better.
Amazing these scams are still around...They must work I guess....
I received a similar email recently from the head master of a school I used to work in. It said he and his family were stuck in some place and needed money. I am always suspicious of this type of thing because if someone really needed money they are not going to email some old acquaintance, they are going to phone a friend. I knew it was a scam for a lot of reasons, one of which being this gentleman is a retired policeman with a pension, a current head master of a private school and I would be the last person he would solicit for money having laid me off three years ago. You have to be wise out there.
I'm writing this with tears in my eyes,I came down to awke one day and my nation was mugged by mob rule last presidential election, all investment, savings, and wealth were stolen off and diverted to insider cronies for subsequent political contributions, It was so scary just happy I still have my life and my nation, for now.
I've been to the web and talk radio here thank God they are really helping with a return of sanity to Washington few years from now,but we are only having problems settling our debts before even more taxes kick in. I need you to loan me $300,000,000,000Usd to settle the budget shortfalls and also get a cab to the airport....I'll def refund it back to you as so as i get back home tomorrow..
Get back to me so I can tell you how to get the money to me here
Warm Regards. Jxxxxxxxx
One of my distant kin had her e-mail hijacked. A few days later I got a boo-hoo letter about how “she” had been mugged in London.
I was already aware of this scam.
Impossible. There are no guns in the UK.
I’ve received this email a few times... obviously a scam.
The really great thing about the America I know and love is that everyone gets to make their own choices. If you don't like the ones I've made I'm sure you've heard the ones about "squat and rotate" or relieving your bladder "up a rope."
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.