A Scam is a Scam is a Scam

Oh the nerve of some people! It amazes me to what great depths some will go to in wreaking havoc on others.

Just this afternoon I received a rather strange email supposedly from my brother. It was unusual because the contents did not come near to what he would write about in an email. For starters, my brother is famous for "piggy-backing" off previously sent emails from family members.

The major text of the email was in reference to him being in London for some kind of conference that he didn't let us know about. Uh-Uh! Even though my siblings and I are geographically located in several different states, not one of us would leave the country without notifying each other.

The final clue that gave it away as a scam was the fact that he needed nearly $2,000 to get back home. That dead rat was smelling fouler by the minute.

Immediately I called my older sister and she mentioned that her husband had just received that same email. We concluded it had to be a scam. After I hung up with her, I contacted my brother but ended up getting his voice mail instead. I then called his son, my nephew. He had just received that same email too. Fortunately he was able to talk to his father directly on the phone to verify that someone had hacked into his account.

Shortly after that I received a call from my brother and he gave me his new email address to contact the rest of the family members with. He said although he would love to be in London such was not the case.

The point of the story is to not respond to emails if it sounds too much out of the ordinary of what that individual would ordinarily send. As a close family we would have pitched in to help out but there were just too many red flags to ignore.

So be careful when reading your emails and don't send money or important information based solely on an emotional plea until you have verified its contents by the author of the email.

SOURCE:

Personal experience