I’ve written about the dangers of opening unsolicited email before, but it wasn’t until the other day that I got to experience the aggravation of someone I knew who was adversely affected by a phishing attack. If you haven’t heard of the term, phishing is an attempt to fraudulently acquire sensitive information, such as usernames, passwords and credit card details, by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. There has been a significant increase in phishing emails recently, purporting to come from companies like eBay, TD Canada Trust, Royal Bank, FutureShop, and Yahoo. If you receive an email that is supposedly coming from a legitimate company like the ones I mentioned, and the message asks you to visit a legitimate looking website to provide personal information of any sort, do not give out any information. Simply delete the email. No legitimate company will ever ask for your confidential information in an email. Ever.

But I must share my recent brush with phishing. It began with a phone call from a good friend who informed me that she had just received an email from Yahoo telling her that her account was about to be suspended and that she must visit their site to update her password. It had been a very busy day for her, and, not really thinking, she went to the site that claimed to be from Yahoo. She entered her account info and password, and hit enter. Bingo. The scammers had her. She was immediately unable to access her account and began to worry. Then she called me and told me what happened. She said that soon after visiting the phony site she received a phone call from her grandmother asking her if she was in trouble. It turns out that the scammers hijacked her email and sent a message to everyone in her contact list, alerting them that she was stuck in Africa, out of money, and had lost her passport. Ironically, my friend was actually contemplating a missionary excursion to Africa in the near future. Also, many individuals in her address book are also missionaries themselves. These are good, kind people that were being targeted.

I immediately went to the Yahoo mail page and reported my friend’s account as having been compromised. But the damage had already been done. When we contacted Yahoo support via phone (our email attempts were unsuccessful), we had her password reset and she was again able to access her account. We logged in to see her messages and we were shocked. Several of her friends had responded to the email, and those who did were greeted by a new email that specifically asked for money, and provided a Western Union account to send the money to. Not only that, but the scammers had obviously read some of her emails to discern that she always ends her emails with a “blessings” closing. It has been several days now, and thankfully nobody who responded has at least admitted to sending money. Remember: legitimate companies will never ask for confidential information in an email. Also – do not click on any links from an email unless you are 100% sure of who and where it is coming from!

Following are the messages (verbatim) that were used by the scammers, who are likely part of a very large criminal organization who have been the subject of a huge investigation by many law enforcement organizations.

EXAMPLE 1
How are you doing today? I am sorry I didn't inform you about my traveling to Africa for a program called "Empowering Youth to Fight Racism, HIV/AIDS, Poverty and Lack of Education, the program is taking place in three major countries in Africa which are Ghana, South Africa and Nigeria . It as been a very sad and bad moment for me, the present condition that I found myself is very hard for me to explain. 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 am now owning a hotel bill of $1200 and they wanted me to pay the bill soon else they will have to seize my bag and hand me over to the Hotel Management., I need this help from you urgently to help me back home, I need you to help me with the hotel bill and i will also need $1300 to feed and help myself back home so please can you help me with a sum of $2500 to sort out my problems here? I need this help so much and on time because i am in a terrible and tight situation here, I don't even have money to feed myself for a day which means i had been starving so please understand how urgent i needed your help.

I am sending you this e-mail from the city Library and I only have 45 mins, I will appreciate what so ever you can afford to send me for now and 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.

Blessings,

xxxxx

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EXAMPLE 2
Yes am now in Nigeria Africa and Nice to read from you so fast and thanks for wanting to help, Am sorry I never informed you, am really sorry, I have no access to the phone here so there is no way I would be able to call for now, the fastest way of getting the money through to me here will be by Western union money transfer, all you need to do is to go to a closest western union location there at your place and get the money sent to the Hotel Director information below.

Receiver name: Odeniyi Dorcas
Address: Eko Hotel and Suites 247.
City: Ikeja
State: Lagos
Zipcode: 23401
Country: Nigeria

Look for local store or bank nearby that has a western union outlet and send the money, As soon as you send the money, please email me with the money transfer control number, full sender's name, text question and answer and amount sent, I will appreciate your help at this time and I promise to pay back when I'm back in the country.

Blessings,

xxxxx