Don't believe "MY TERRIBLE SITUATION" email from friend/family

[DawnM]

I have gotten two of these emails. The first one I got was actually rather funny as I had just gone to lunch with the person that day and came home to an email that he was stuck in the UK and needed money.

The second was a person I knew was not in the UK either as he was 15. His mom quickly sent out emails as soon as she found out and assured us that he was indeed NOT in the UK but safe and sound at home.

Dawn

 

[semo233]

I don't know how someone could get your contact list
but I wonder if this is why computer guy put a firewall on my computer. It prevents anyone from remotely accessing my computer.

 

[MnMomtoboys]

This happened to one of the parents at my son's school. She was so freaked out about it and kept bugging people that I wished she was stranded in England.

 

[Anne34]

I don't know how someone could get your contact list
but I wonder if this is why computer guy put a firewall on my computer. It prevents anyone from remotely accessing my computer.

This happened to a friend of ours also. The person got their contact list and had control of their computer. They were unable to log on or anything!! She said they also had a firewall, but who knows? It is scary cause you can't do anything about it.

 

[Leajess99]

Wow, I guess now I don't feel so bad for ignoring the pleas from my daughter's former assistant soccer coach. I never responded and just ignored it as I was getting ready to head to WDW when it came in and these people make a lot more money that I do. lol Thanks for sharing this.

 

[Tiger926]

Yes, of course it's a scam.

I guess I don't understand why people wouldn't assume it's a scam right away? No one I know who would truly be stranded in a foreign country, would ask for money by email. Some people don't check email for days at a time, so email is not the best way to deal with an emergency = scam. I don't email my priest, but even if I did, I wouldn't expect him to email me for money in any situation. Doesn't add up, which also equals scam!

As well, if they call you on the phone, I wouldn't send money either. Not really sure how they can get control of people's computers with firewalls, Norton, etc. My computer is secure, and Norton tells me when there is an intrusion attempt, as well, my Internet provider has stellar protection as well.

My husband is a bank manager, and he is baffled by the amount of people who fall for this nonsense on a daily basis. Way too many issues with Facebook and such, and people have just let their guards down way too much.

Watch your computers! Tiger

 

[kacaju]

I just had this email go out to all my contacts a month ago. It has been nothing but a HUGE PITA!!

I sent out an email at 7am left to drive the kids to school and walk with a friend before heading to work myself. By 8:30 I was getting calls from friends saying I got hacked into.

By the time i got home from work at 2pm. All my contacts were gone My password to my email account was changed as well.

i spent 3 hours on the phone with msn to help correct my problem, no lie from 7pm to10pm on the phone talking to many different levels of tech support.

We found out if you go to your main contact info that the person had changed my country to Nigeria (instead of USA)
changed my Birthdate
Had all of my emails forwarded to an different email address

and also they had changed the email (to yet a different email) so if I asked for any of my passwords to be emailed to me, they would go to this email. Also they changed my security question. They had *my favorite teacher* which happens to be a question I would NEVER pick

It has been a month already and I am still trying to pick up the pieces and collect most of my emails. Good news is because of my volunteer work I had so many email addresses in my address book that I really needed to get rid of anyway. Pretty much anyone emails who I want I was able to get them back.

 

[snowmanlover]

I just sent my "Dsis" and email asking her for her hotel name and room number so I can arrange to get her the money. Waiting to hear back.

Good one!!!

 

[snowmanlover]

There is also a phone version of this scam, usually targeting older people. What they do is call and say they are a family member (your grandson for example). It's the same story that they are away and need help to get home for some reason. They ask for you to wire money for them... and then you never see your money again.

ALWAYS check before you wire money to anyone! Have a question or two you can ask your "relative" to verify they are who they say they are. If it sounds fishy, it most likely is.

The phone version happened to a friend's SIL & BIL and they fell for it!! They lost a few thousand dollars! They said it was their Grandson and they even got the name right!!

 

[Dizneydaz]

My Dsis spent much of yesterday trying to straighten this out. According to Yahoo their system was infected with a worm and they are trying to fix and and figure out how it happened. They were inundated with calls yesterday regarding this issue.

She "may" be able top retrieve her lost emails and contacts list. They said it may be possible if it's still in their system, as long as it's been less than 24 hours. Fingers crossed. Not sure what Yahoo can do but we do know the address where the emails were sent.

She does have a firewall so if you do, don't think this can't happen to you. According to Yahoo, this was a random act and could have happened to anyone-now doesn't that make you feel good?

Oh, and here's the latest from my "Dsis" in the UK

The hotel management would not let me access to their phone facilities because am still owing them which is the reason why I need your help immediately.and they will not call Please kindly help me and here is the manager`s phone numbers (*%#*(%(#

Apparently when my UK "Dsis" was mugged she lost her ability to use proper grammar and punctuation!

This was the response after my reply that I really needed to talk to her personally before I sent the confirmation number.

Hmm, so she can't use their phone to dial out but why does that restrict me from calling her?

I think I know have enough info to turn this over to the proper authorities. The phone number they gave must belong to someone, right?

 

[sydneysmom]

this EXACT thing happened to me about 4 months ago. I had a Yahoo email and my sister emailed me first thing in the morning (they're on the East coast so she's at work earlier) ....well, she forwarded me the email with at "what the heck" !!! It deleted ALL of my contacts. ( which terrified me) So, I called Yahoo and they said , gee, sorry...it appears that hackers could take your contact list but that was it. ( i'm sorry, WHAT ????) But they sent that email to EVERYONE in my list. (yes, my doctor and GYN and insurance guy. how mortifying is that ??) the worst part is, I lost everyone's email address because they took it. ( so I couldn't send out an email to anyone that I only had their address in that contact list). UGH.

Long story short, I opened an email at Comcast (because their security is very good) and I deleted EVERYTHING (all files, everything) off my yahoo. Then called Yahoo and cancelled my email account. It scared me though, because I didn't know if they got into anything else. Thankfully (knock on wood) it doesn't look like we had any viruses or anything like that. Thank God.

 

[Dizneydaz]

They (Yahoo) told my DSis that it is just a worm and hasn't infected her computer. So that's some good news.

 

[hambirg]

I just wanted to add that the phone number may not lead to anybody either. It is most likely a Google number that is rerouted.

I've seen this one before. It does not mean that they somehow got into your computer, just the email providers servers. They obviously found a vulnerability to Yahoos system. That's why I hate that third parties, like Facebook, can pull your contact lists.

I had something similar happen. . but it was in Yahoo IM. The IM window popped open and it was supposedly, a guy that used to date my friend. I do talk to him in IM sometime, so it wasn't out of the ordinary. Well, he asked, "Is this you on Facebook?" and there was what looked like a link to a picture. Not a minute after I clicked on that link another IM window popped up. "This is Brian. If you get an IM from me asking you to open a Facebook link. . .DON"T CLICK ON IT! I've been hacked. It's a virus." Great! And it was. . .took some time before my computer guy was able to get everything back to normal.

 

[Tanzanite]

Ihad an email like that a few months ago i got a very hard to remove virus from it. Only got rid of the virus 3 wks ago.

 

[lyncecelia]

my friend told me that he got an IM from my REALLY OLD yahoo account about taking an IQ test. I haven't used this account since I was about 13/14 and he was the only person I still knew that was on there, so I told him to just block it....