SCAM alert

[Steve]

Hi all,

This seems to be doing the rounds in various forms...the moral is not to send money to anyone based on messages like this, of course...

SCAM MESSAGE

Hope you get this on time, I made a trip to Edinburgh, Scotland and had my bag
stolen from me with my cash and personal effects in it. Unfortunately for me,
I've made contact with my bank but they are not providing a fast solution. I
need you to lend me some money to sort my self out of this predicament, I will
pay back as soon as I return.
Western Union transfer is the best option to send money to me. Please let me
know if this works out for you so that i can forward you details on how to get
it to me.
Best regards,
Ana

END SCAM MESSAGE

Steve

[Andy]

Steve,

I've received several similar messages like this from people I know, usually from hotmail accounts. In every case the account has been hacked and they didn't know until I phoned them. Funniest one came form the address of someone who was ex Army, over 6' tall and very fit and he was supposed to have been mugged in Spain .....

A moral of the story is not to use very simple passwords for email.

Andy

[Roger]

Received this one the other day .....went straight in the bin!!!

Roger

[Steve]

Roger,

Most folks will bin it straight away.. but perhaps not the slightly confused or ill or tired or drunk folks.. or some where it hits the spot perfectly, with the name of someone who it all fits exactly.

I would guess that the notion is to send out millions of them and then even if only 1 in 100,000 falls for it in some way money starts to flow.

If you watch the current Natwest advert where a daughter is away and needs money sent fast, and how they say they have systems so you can do this quickly... or the Barclays one where they say the same thing but about using your phone... well you can probably guess how they probably got the idea...

The main thing is for all here to be aware of this SCAM and then there is almost no chance of falling for it even if the message is very convincing and from a known/normally trusted mail address... you'd hope...

Steve