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Be wary of those ‘distress’ e-mails from ‘stranded’ friends

KANNUR: You may not be an unsuspecting soul to immediately wire money through Money Gram or Western Union to help your friend who sends you an e-mail informing that he needs immediate financial help as he is in trouble in Nigeria after he has lost his bag and wallet. But hackers sending mails from the e-mail account of your ‘stranded’ friend think that some of the recipients may respond the way they are asked to do and be duped.

Beware, if such an e-mail lands in your inbox, especially the friend who ‘sends’ you the e-mail is a constant traveller.

The apparently latest fraud is all likely to be an innovation of fraudsters who used to send e-mails claiming that they got huge amount of cash which they cannot get out of the country where it is situated and seeking the recipient’s help to transfer the amount to his or her bank account, offering a sizable amount as commission. Recently, friends of a senior staff member in a Kochi-based private company received an e-mail from his mail account informing that he was on a trip to Africa for a ‘program’ called ‘Empowering Youth to Fight Racism, HIV/AIDS, Poverty and Lack of Education’ and that his ‘present condition’ was ‘very hard to explain’.

The rest of the message written in an unconventional language reads: “I am really stranded in Nigeria because I forgot my little bag in the taxi where my money, passport, documents and other valuable things were kept on my way to the hotel am staying, I am facing a hard time here because I have no money on me… . I promise to pay back your money as soon as I return home. So please let me know on time so that I can forward you the details you need to transfer the money through Money Gram or Western Union. Hope to hear from you.”

“I came to know of the fraud when I got calls from my friends including those living abroad to check if I have been really stranded in Nigeria,” said the person who requested anonymity. The e-mails were sent from his Hotmail ID and when he tried to open his mail box, he found that his ID was hacked. He could not open the mail box because the password had already been changed by the hackers. Though none of his friends fell for the designs of the fraudsters, some of them genuinely believed that he was in real trouble in Nigeria.

He is not the only victim whose e-mail account has been broken into by innovative fraudsters. Recently friends of P.A. Wahid, former Dean of the Kerala Agricultural University, who is settled at Thalassery, received similar emergency e-mail. “I dialled his residence phone number after I got this e-mail and to my surprise Dr. Wahid himself responded the call,” said K.C. Saleem, Deputy Director of Information and Public Relations Department here, who was among those who received the e-mail from Dr. Wahid’s e-mail account.

According to computer experts, the hackers enter the e-mail account and send the emergency message for help to everyone in the contact list in the mail account. They break into the mail accounts by sending account holders’ genuinely looking messages from bogus e-mails that ask them information including their email ID and password for verification.

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