to give you all a warning

[SometimesLonely]

I don't know where else to put this but there's a lot of traffic here. Spread the word. I've just received a scam e-mail asking for money. I quote below:

(I agreed to do a favour because I knew the e-mail address)

"Thanks for your email ^^, I'm in Kharkov, Ukraine right now for a short business trip and I'm short on cash right here, I tried to access my account from the cash machines here and it's not working, I went to the bank to withdraw and I was informed that I cannot withdraw money from my account in some countries, that it's network errors, I'm thinking if I could get a quick loan of £1,450 from you or anything you can afford to loan me so that I can clear some little things here and also take a cab to the airport. I promise to refund it as soon as I get back home on Thursday, let me know so I can send you my details."

Even the way it was worded told me it was a scam. Please watch out everyone. There will probably be others.

I've won so many lotteries, in so many countries, that I'm not likely to fall for this one.

Sadly these things get sent out because they work - even a 1% return is fine for the fraudsters. So all smug types telling OP that no-one needs to be warned really should back off.

I listen to the Radio 4 Money Box and You and Yours podcasts and they both have had features recently about people who have sent thousands to scammers who have contacted the victims either on the phone or by email, so people do fall for it. I do wonder how, but apparently the criminals are very convincing.

One couple have unwittingly become money launderers and the police are now threatening to charge them.

They sent something like £200k to the criminals as a way of somehow investing it into £600k. The criminals sent a few tens of thousands back to the victims with instructions to distribute it via several other accounts, which they did, therefore money laundering. The police said that, while this couple were in their 80s, they were not classically naive, vulnerable or uneducated, ie they were still both of sharp minds, active, and reasonably experienced users of the internet.

OnIlkleyMoorBahTwat

That's what happened to the friend of I friend I mentioned, he got involved in money laundering. When he tried to pull out he got threatened with violence. And then the police got involved, I don't know the outcome.

Everyone knows about this and the Nigerian prince. I'm not so bothered as both MR MERVYN KING GIVERNOR BANK OF ENGLAND and MR KOFI ANAN OF THE UNITED NATIONS both regularly email. It's a sad state of affairs though when Nat west block their accounts.

Apparently I'm due in court in Atlanta. I wonder what I've done from 4000 miles away. Do you think I can claim my travel expenses?

Last Christmas, I was working in the local Post Office, when an elderly gent came in. He was worried because he'd posted off a letter the previous day, with a cheque to secure his prize of a top sports car (!), but he'd put a UK stamp on it even though the letter needed to go to Hong Kong. He thought perhaps the letter wouldn't get there. He told me that he'd thought it might be a scam, but his friend had persuaded him to try, just in case it was genuine. Quite frankly, if the letter didn't make it, I actually think he would have done himself a favour - there was never going to be a car in it for him (he showed me the - very poor quality - flyer that he was responding to). I just felt so sorry for him. But it just goes to show that there's always someone, somewhere who's willing to part with their cash, on the offchance that it might be genuine.

I won't be able to help out as apparently someone has changed the security details on my bank account today .........again

Awesome! I'll meet you for a cuppa, somewhere in America.

I think they can be more plausible when they come from a friend's email address. One I had recently even had their usual web site details at the end of the email.

I think the major difference with this scam is that it comes from a "known" email address rather than Prince Whoever. So as the OP rightly says, if it's a friend who you know does travel a lot, you could be more likely to be duped.

Apparently the people doing the scamming are having far more luck with this one than the whole lottery / inheritance type thing.

Oi move over, that Nigerian prince is mine!

Unfortunately people do fall for this. Working for the police I see it every day. People come and ask for advice/if something is genuine. You tell them it's a scam and they don't listen and say they will think about it.

Yes I agree that sadly people fall for these scams.

My sister in law fell for a scam and they got all her bank and card details and wiped the lot! She has a PHD so she is intelligent, but totally fell for it :(

I apparantly have lots of bank accounts that I never even knew I had that need a password changing :o

My Nigerian prince hasn't emailed me for ages. I'm hurt!

am i the only one with the un spy....maybe hes genuine then

I'm helping some remote family of Colonel Gaddafi to flee. Once they've got out I'm going to be rolling in teh megabucks.

I've also dealt with a case where a young man who fell for an ebay scam. He bought a laptop from Nigeria (bad start), sent money via western union (oh dear) then when laptop did not turn up he emailed the seller. Seller said "oh dear, there has been an error, we have sent you three laptops instead of 1, you need to send us an extra x and you'll get the third laptop for free". Sadly he fell for it. His Mum was livid and upset that we couldn't do anything but, despite Ebay clearly stating "do not enter transactions outside ebay" they still do.

He was a young, internet savvy man that you'd assume wouldn't be so gullible. Unfortunately people seem to leave their common sense at home if they think they might get some money for nothing.

People have had emails from the accounts of friends abroad in places like Thailand etc. saying they're stranded and needed money please transfer some into the 'embassies' account etc. and fallen for it as they thought their friends were in trouble. What's horrible about those is that you'd assume it was orchestrated by people they'd befriended. Either that or they put every waking move on fb.

I had a Nigerian one once saying their Dad was stuck on a spacestation

Have also seen a VERY realistic HMRC one that was sent to my boyfriend. Even I, the most sceptical email reader, had to read twice!

Horrible scummy people.

*embassy's'

I started working recently for a selling place and the amount of people who part with large amounts of cash beggars believe. Not stupid people, but trusting people.

My favourite one was sent from "loydds bank". It went along the lines of:

"Greetings! We at Loydds bank wish to share good fortunes with our flavoured customers. That is you! We are managers of big branch that makes big prophets and if you email your online banking details with password we can give big money of that prophet to you! My friend! You cannot miss such a surprising gift! Please email back in a hurry or a mistake may be made."

So bad it was funny!

I was rather bemused when the DC's old deputy head emailed me to ask for money, as she'd been left stranded in Spain and all of her money/cards etc. taken.

Somehow the same message had gone from her to hundreds of contacts - all rather embarrassing for her and the school!