Today at 3:22 PM, I received the first phone call and would later discover that the first email also arrived then. Apparently, another form of Nigerian embezzlement was underway with a message from my hacked gmail account being sent to my contacts.
Subject: “Very Important, Please Read ASAP.”
I want you to read carefully and please kindly get back to you asap; it’s very urgent and important. I am currently out of states for a personal business trip in London. Unfortunately, I misplaced both my wallet & my ATM card, maybe at the hotel where i lodged or somewhere else I can’t really say exactly.
You can read the rest of their message below along with a few responses to me and the fake reply to email address.
I’ll write in a later post what I think the ramifications of this may be for both those whose contact data was stolen and me. I’ll include in that any additional lessons I discover regarding this. And if I discover it the gmail bot detection system has been tricked, I’ll let you know that too. But for now here is the rest of the message and my favorite response.
Right now I’m totally confused, as I don’t know what to do, I went to the US Embassy to report the issue and also seek for their financial assistance for me to get back home and also pay the hotel bills but unfortunately me nothing could be done to assist me financially at the Us Embassy, I didn’t have my phone here since my traveling was outside the country, I would have prefer discussing this with you over the phone, but since I have no access to phone I decided to contact you by email because its the only avenue I can use to send you this urgent notice..
I’m totally stranded and have no dime with me here, can you please do me a favor? I need a loan worth of $2000 from you so that I could pay the hotel bills and also book a return ticket back home. Will you be able to get me the loan and how soon, cos I will need it ASAP? I promise to pay you as soon as I get home. I need to pay up the hotel bills so that I could be free to pack my luggage and leave to board a flight back home without further delaying. The hotel management here is not taking it easy with me, just because I’ve not been able to pay their bills since I’ve lodged in. I have been restricted from using so many facilities of the hotel including the uses of the telephone services.
Write back to me ASAP and let me know how you could assist me with the loan, then I can give you further instruction on how to send it to me. Please keep this confidentially, as I wouldn’t want anyone to know about this since I never told anyone about the trip because all my plans was that its going to be a successful one and I will be back without any cause for alarm.
Thanks.
Here is my favorite response to the perpetrator:
I am very kindly getting back to you asap. I’m very so sorry for your urgent need of monies. How so sad that you may lost your wallet and your ATM card. You should be looking where you lodged and then may find it there.
I’m sure the embassy would not want to give you many monies like $2000 US dollars. Maybe you can be asking them for a loan on behalf of the tax rebate from our esteemed President Mr. Bush.
Good luck with your problem, I’m sure as you are so smart you will find many good ways to be making enough monies to come back. And GOOD NEWS! If you are earning British Pounds you will only need 1000 instead of 2000, this is being a good deal for you.
Here are some messages sent to me:
Hi Dwayne -
I got this email message today (text below). Either you’ve been hacked, or you’re having a very difficult trip…
Cheers, Andy
OK – what bogus web site have you been frequenting?
Check this out. I just received it. weird huh?
Looks like we are all getting strange emails from you.
Dwayne: Don’t you love the electronic age?
Looks like someone has got hold of your Gmail address…. That and his grammar is really bad.