A classic scam went electronic, and you have probably seen some version: you receive an e-mail, IM, social networking message, etc. from a friend who is far away, has had his wallet stolen, and needs you to send him some money. Of course, your friend is not in Istanbul, and he would be surprised to learn that he has e-mailed everyone in his address book.
“Everyone” was driven home this morning when an out-of-state high school (not a high schooler, the school’s business address) e-mailed our state police criminal background check address asking if we could help it get back from Scotland. The Academy was on a trip when its bag was stolen, and wouldn’t you know it, its passport was in that bag, and it needs to pay for the hotel and the flight home.
On behalf of a records help address, we have heard your personal appeal from a generic business address, and our heart goes out to your difficulties overseas.
: Zubon
I actually just had the reverse happen to me, with a common internet scam coming to the real world. Last night a guy with a very heavy accent called up to tell me that malware had been detected on my computer and that for a small fee they could remove it and secure my system.
I’ll bet they’d “secure” it.
I nearly fell out of my chair laughing at the guy. My mind over-ran its buffer with questions that would challenge his statement, but all I could get out was laughter. And that didn’t even deter the guy, who kept reading his script.
In a spell of boredom I managed to keep one of those guys on the line for half an hour with innocent responses like when he asked me to type an internet address with “a” for alpha I responded “A …4 …. A…..L … now where is the P key again?”
The scary part is that my fiance’s cousin emailed me, “stranded in Germany”, and she visits Germany often (ancestors). I came >.< close to sending her $1,500…