[Talk Host]

The administrators have received the following message at our email addresses. We assume that the sender harvested it from Talk of The Villages. They may be targeting Villages residents.

However they got it, the following is a scam and should not be taken seriously. It's an age old trick. A friend of mine got a phone call similar to this an almost sent the money.

Hope you get this on time,sorry I didn't inform you about my trip in UK for a Program, I'm presently in UK and am having some difficulties here because i misplaced my wallet on my way to the hotel where my money and other valuable things were kept. presently i have limited access to internet,I will like you to assist me with a loan of £1500 to sort-out my hotel bills and to get myself back home.

I have spoken to the embassy here but they are not responding to the matter effectively,I will appreciate whatever you can afford to assist me with,I'll Refund the money back to you as soon as i return,let me know if you can be of any help.I don't have a phone where i can be reached.

Please let me know immediately.

Regards.

Karen

Sorry Karen!!!!!

JLK

[memason]

I can't imagine why anyone would respond to an email like this, especially from someone you don't know. Maybe I'm just cold hearted ...

That said, I'm sure there are people who do...

Thanks for the heads up...

[Tbugs]

I know of one person this happened to and it was very similar except the email message went out to everyone in his AOL address book. Someone had been able to hack into the AOL address book somehow. Naturally, people knew the friend was not in Spain as the email said and callled him immediately to find out what the scoop was. He then contacted AOL and got a new account right away - and sent another message to all on his mail group explaining it was a hoax.

Quite a few scams going on around here like the "You have won a $2,500 prize and here is a $5,000 check. Deposit it in your bank account and send us $2000, keeping the rest as your prize and effort." Naturally, the $5,000 check is a bogus one, you have Western Unioned $2,000 to the bad guys and your bank charges your account for the $5,000. Costly error on your part.

The Grandchild scam is another one going around when you get a phone call from someone who says, "Hi Grandma (or Grandpa). You say, "Billy, is that you?" They say yes and that they need money sent to an address right away and not to tell Mom or Dad. Naturally, it is not Billy at all but lots of seniors are just too anxious to help without using common sense.

The Daily Sun puts reminders in the paper about common scams going around.

[redwitch]

A good tip off on emails like this is the grammar. If the grammer or wording sounds wrong, strange capitalizations, etc., the odds are it comes from either Africa or China and is a fraud.

[Indydealmaker]

I received an email very similar to this from a person in my contact list who coincidently often traveled abroad. I was both suspicious and concerned, so instead of hitting the reply button, I went to my address book and generated a new email to my "contact" telling him about the email that I had just received from him and asking if it was real.

A few minutes later I received a reply that yes it was real and he would appreciate my help. I was still suspicious.

I then initiated another email that asked a question that only my "real" friend could answer. I never heard another thing.

If you check the "header" of the email, you can usually see the "electronic trail" that will show the email came from somewhere other than the purported source. It's a jungle out there!

[espulmano]

I got a similar message supposedly from a friend of mind. I immediately called her up and asked about it... turned out someone had hacked into her email account and sent it out to all of her friends. They even changed her password and she was unable to get into her own account.

[scrapple]

This has been going around for many years in various forms. Whenever something comes up that you're really not so sure about, go to www.snopes.com I'm having trouble doing a cut and paste on this site for some reason. Anyway, this very thing is discussed there. Click on "Top Scams", scroll down and you'll see it and other fascinating urban myths.

[BritParrothead]

we have known about this type of scam for about a year here in the UK, the Florida forums I am a member of have been talking of this for a while. NOT nice.
BUT, if you do not know the person named or email address, why would you open it?? We never open emails from unknown persons.

[Talk Host]

Originally Posted by BritParrothead

.
BUT, if you do not know the person named or email address, why would you open it?? We never open emails from unknown persons.

The administrators at Talk of The Villages receive hundreds of emails from people we don't know, every week. Almost all of them say something like, "need your help" or "help" or "urgently need help." We are in the help business here.

JLK

[scrapple]

I see your point, TA! Thanks for alerting folks that it's out there! Luckily that type of scam is one where you open it and go, ok, it's a stupid thing. I think that's why it's important to keep up on sites like snopes. I don't think this is a kind of scam where TV is specifically being targetted, because it is so old. I've also rec'd it again lately.

[bike42]

Originally Posted by BritParrothead

BUT, if you do not know the person named or email address, why would you open it?? We never open emails from unknown persons.

These scam emails appear to come from someone you DO know (you were in their address book that got hacked).
Another variation tries to get you to open a link that installs horrible malware onto your computer.

[Bill-n-Brillo]

Originally Posted by redwitch

A good tip off on emails like this is the grammar. If the grammer or wording sounds wrong, strange capitalizations, etc., the odds are it comes from either Africa or China and is a fraud.

What red said!

If the content in the e-mail is pretty boogered up, you can count on it being a ruse of some sort. Opening the e-mail itself isn't the problem..........just don't open up any attachments!

Bill

[Walt.]

Originally Posted by redwitch

A good tip off on emails like this is the grammar. If the grammer or wording sounds wrong, strange capitalizations, etc., the odds are it comes from either Africa or China and is a fraud.

It's clear that you're just jealous that the nice Nigerian fellow isn't sending YOU the $41,000,000. Now... if I could just figure out who recommended me so highly....

[ConeyIsBabe]

I got a similar email from one of my Facebook friends but I knew it was fake because she NEVER travels anywhere

[brostholder]

Please help! I am stuck here in Toledo, Ohio because I can't sell my house. Please send me $250,000 so I can move to TV and get out of this nasty, grey, wet weather.