We've moved from phone issues to e-mails

Katybug

Katybug

Senior Member
Location
Charlotte, NC
An e-mail I just received from friend/Karen

Hello,


I Hope you get this on time, I made a trip to Manila(Philippines) and had my bag stolen from me with my passport and personal effects therein. The embassy has just issued me a temporary passport but I have to pay for a ticket and settle my hotel bills with the Manager.


I have made contact with my bank but it would take me 3-5 working days to access funds in my account, the bad news is my flight will be leaving very soon but i am having problems settling the hotel bills and the hotel manager won't let me leave until i settle the bills, I need your help/LOAN financially and I promise to make the refund once i get back home, you are my last resort and hope, Please let me know if i can count on you and i need you to keep checking your email because it's the only way i can reach you.

Many thanks,

Karen

Note the greeting is a mere "HELLO" and damned near knocks you down with SCAM!!! Somehow they know she is a friend & that I have rec'd e-mails from her. They used her last name as well with a Yahoo address.

Gawd, this is really getting scary at how they work this. Little do they know Karen lost her job last week and can't afford to go to the mall, much less Manila! These people will stop at nothing to get your $$$. This one is almost identical to one I rec'd last year from another friend.
 
It's really funny that they think such a highly impersonal and rather demanding e-mail would work for those of us thinking clearly, (well, for the most part clearly.) Tho it may not happen often, I'm sure this crap works. It makes me sick to imagine caring seniors with a tad of dementia receiving something like this and rushing to $help$ their friend in distress. And those poor dears are the ones who keep these jackasses in business!

They say you shouldn't reply, but I couldn't resist! My reply was..."I know the hotel of your stay in Manila, Karen, and am wiring $10,000 to you immediately. Yeah, right, Scammer!"

If for only one brief half second the A-H thought he had a victim, it would make my day!
 
That's a nasty scam when they try to make it personal like that.

I don't mind when Mrs. Mabooboo of Ethiopia contacts me on behalf of her late husband, the Right Reverend Prince Mabooboo, and asks if I would deposit her $15 million in my bank, for which I will receive a $1 million "finder's fee".

At least that's business. Of a sort.

But for the last year I have received emails from friends of mine - from their full names, anyway - wanting to sell me ******, among other things. Now, in regards to ****** my friends would fall into two distinct camps: those who would rather feed me carpet tacks and arsenic, and those who would comment along the lines of "It would be like wrapping a dead fish in mink".

NEITHER group would ever ask if I wanted to BUY the stuff, though, so I know it's a scam. They get the names either from my Facebook, AOL or Yahoo accounts.
 
I've heard the ones about getting calls from a grandchild, friend, etc, asking for money because they're in trouble, but this is scary - and yes, I'm sure some would fall for it. Ticks me off that there's people who pull this crap; just another thing to watch for.

I've never follow up on anything like that without checking it out the best I could. Jerks!!!
 
SifuPhil said:
That's a nasty scam when they try to make it personal like that.

I don't mind when Mrs. Mabooboo of Ethiopia contacts me on behalf of her late husband, the Right Reverend Prince Mabooboo, and asks if I would deposit her $15 million in my bank, for which I will receive a $1 million "finder's fee".

At least that's business. Of a sort.

But for the last year I have received emails from friends of mine - from their full names, anyway - wanting to sell me ******, among other things. Now, in regards to ****** my friends would fall into two distinct camps: those who would rather feed me carpet tacks and arsenic, and those who would comment along the lines of "It would be like wrapping a dead fish in mink".

NEITHER group would ever ask if I wanted to BUY the stuff, though, so I know it's a scam. They get the names either from my Facebook, AOL or Yahoo accounts.
Click to expand...

When you put your hands over your face and truly LOL, you know it's a reply from Phil. Thx for the laughter, buddy.

As for the ****** ads, too many to mention coming my way. I need all the info I can get on that, don't you know?
 
SifuPhil said:
That's a nasty scam when they try to make it personal like that.

I don't mind when Mrs. Mabooboo of Ethiopia contacts me on behalf of her late husband, the Right Reverend Prince Mabooboo, and asks if I would deposit her $15 million in my bank, for which I will receive a $1 million "finder's fee".

At least that's business. Of a sort.

But for the last year I have received emails from friends of mine - from their full names, anyway - wanting to sell me ******, among other things. Now, in regards to ****** my friends would fall into two distinct camps: those who would rather feed me carpet tacks and arsenic, and those who would comment along the lines of "It would be like wrapping a dead fish in mink".

NEITHER group would ever ask if I wanted to BUY the stuff, though, so I know it's a scam. They get the names either from my Facebook, AOL or Yahoo accounts.
Click to expand...

This is hilarious....I just got an e-mail supposedly from my daughter (with her full name, but not her correct e-mail address) and they were trying to sell me something to make a part of myself bigger....a part which I don't even have. LOL!!!! Like you, Phil, I get them often with friend's names on them and naturally none of them authenic. Still, it's worrisome that these scammers can access names/info coming into us from our friends and relatives.
 
Katybug said:
This is hilarious....I just got an e-mail supposedly from my daughter (with her full name, but not her correct e-mail address) and they were trying to sell me something to make a part of myself bigger....a part which I don't even have. LOL!!!! Like you, Phil, I get them often with friend's names on them and naturally none of them authenic. Still, it's worrisome that these scammers can access names/info coming into us from our friends and relatives.
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Katie: I'd be almost tempted to tell them you don't have that part, but wonder if they could sell one...... :p
 
Anne said:
Katie: I'd be almost tempted to tell them you don't have that part, but wonder if they could sell one...... :p
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Yes, and I should ask to buy a REALLY big one, biggest one they have, so they don't have to continue contacting me about making it larger! HA!!!! Great idea!
 
I never get anything like that.

A friend just got one though and they informed her that a rich relative died in some country she never even heard of and that all she had to do was give them all of her bank information and they would transfer 25 million dollars to her account.

How hysterical is that. Do they think anybody would fall for that? too strange.

But to have them so personal, that is down right disturbing what scammers can do.
 
It's only the old timers with huge hearts and not thinking clearly at all that would fall for anything so ridiculous. Unfortunately, I'm afraid too many people fall into that category. It's very sad and there is no course of legal action available if you fall for it, according to a news report I heard.
 
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Katybug said:
It's only the old timers with huge hearts and not thinking clearly at all that would fall for anything so ridiculous. Unfortunately, I'm afraid too many people fall into that category. It's very sad and there is no course of legal action available if you fall for it, according to a news report I heard.
Click to expand...

I would think that any legal action would be difficult to impossible, since the scammers are in another country, probably one with few or no laws concerning international fraud. You'd have to spend a huge amount of money to track them down, and even then what do you do with them? I doubt you could extradite them. You'd have to hire a mercenary to set things right.
 
Not email .... but I got a phone call today from: 80151534519000522793819 << what in the world is that??
I'll never know as I punched ignore .. looked at the number .. and just laughed!

 
I heard about this exact scam a couple of years ago. An elderly couple fell for it, thinking it was their grandson, their entire life savings got wiped out because of this. For me, I think I would have made a call to my friend and made sure it was really her and the situation was legit. It really pisses me off when people feel they have nothing better to do than scam people.
 
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