We are all caring and compassionate people who would come to the aid of a friend in an instant. That’s what Internet con artists prey on. If you ever receive an email ostensibly from a friend or relative in a foreign land who is in a cash bind and asks you to wire them money — ignore it. Let your friend know that their email account has been hijacked and their friends are at risk of being scammed. Here is an email I just received that appears to be from someone I know, but which actually tries to fool loved ones into giving money to crooks. It’s obviously a scam. Beware. This is just one of countless versions of this trick.
Hi Friend,
I hope this finds you well. I am presently in Madrid in Spain with my ill Cousin. She’s suffering from a critical uterine fibroid and must undergo hysterectomy surgery to save her life. I am deeply sorry for not writing or calling you before leaving, the news of her illness arrived to me as an emergency and that she needs family support to keep her going, I hope you understand my plight and pardon me.
Hysterectomy surgery is very expensive here, so I want to transfer her back home to have the surgery implemented in the USA. I am wondering if you can be of any assistance to me, I need about €2,850 to make the necessary arrangement; I traveled with little money due to the short time I had to prepare for this trip and never expected things to be the way it is right now. I’ll surely pay you back once I get back home, I need to get her home ASAP because she is going through a lot of pain at the moment and the doctor have advised that it is necessary the tumor is operated soon to avoid anything from going wrong. I’ll reimburse you at my return.
First name…….. Mary
last name………Carter
address……..Calle Atocha 45
city…………. Madrid
country……… Spain
zip code……..69150
Send the money to my name i give to you through western union today are get back to me with the full details.
Rick,
I’ve received a couple of these in the past (although not for awhile) and although they “sounded” legitimate, there were very subtle clues in the way they were written that were somewhat of an “indicator”. I tend to have a bit of a skeptical nature anyway, so would always verify messages like these using means other than E-mail.
A number of people in this area have been victimized by a variation of this scam. The victim (usually elderly) gets a frantic call from a grandson / daughter (or other relative) that they haven’t seen for awhile, who indicates they’ve been “arrested and need bail money”. They’re usually on the other side of the country, so not easy to verify the situation, and the scammer has enough personal information to be “believable”. The funds are always sent via Western Union, and none of the victims EVER get their money back.
The creativity of these scammers never fails to amaze me. I’ve also received numerous offers from supposedly reputable individuals in Nigeria who offer multi-million dollar payouts if I’ll only send them a “processing fee”. As with the ubiquitous scammers I always encounter in Europe, they all get the same response.
A life-threatening uterine fibroid? With all the effort this person supposedly put into the scam, couldn’t they at least have researched something medically plausible?
I’ve gotten these from: a neighbor; a real estate agent; a guide. I don’t know anybody who has actually sent money but where there is a will there is a way and a sucker is born every minute.
There is a variant of this email scam, wherein the “person in distress” is being held by authorities in a foreign jail, and requests bail money.
I was hacked just yesterday with a variant on this – in which I apparently was robbed at gunpoint in Spain and needed my friends to send 1800 euros to help pay my hotel bill. At least I didn’t have uterine fibroids as well to add to the problem. As a result of this hacking, my Facebook was hacked, my email was hacked, I spent all day yesterday on the phone reassuring worried friends and relations that I am in fact fine, and I spent all yesterday evening and all this evening sorting out the mess that has been made of my electronic life. So irritated!! I derive small comfort from the fact that the hacker was apparently in Nigeria (found this out from Facebook when I was getting my account unlocked) so chances are, my life was miserable for one day. His life is miserable on a daily basis.
I adore this one. There is something about the arstbdiuy (in a good monkey skeleton way) of it all and just how personal I can see that event being. I love when people do, well, love in their own way.