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 Replies: 23 / Views: 3,584 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1291 Posts |
I received an email today from an eBayer who purchased a roll of nickels from me in May, 2009. It was my one and only transaction with him. In the email, he says that he and his family are in London and they need my help! Here's what he wrote: I'm sorry for this odd request because it might get to you too urgent but it's due to the situation of things right now.I'm stuck in London,United Kingdom with my family right now, we came down here for a short vacation then I was robbed, worse of it is that bags, cash and credit cards and my cell phone were stolen at GUN POINT, it's such a crazy experience for us but thank God we still have our lives and passports saved.We need help flying back home, the authorities are not being 100% supportive but the good thing is we still have our passports and return tickets but currently having troubles paying off the hotel bills and also getting a cab to take us to the airport.
Please I need you to loan me some money, will refund you as soon as I'm back home, I promise.Kindly Help me now Right after he bought that roll of nickels from me in May. 2009, I initiated a thread on CCF about that ebay transaction. It was a somewhat humorous thread detailing how the guy returned the nickels (without asking for return instructions) and when he did, I quickly discovered that the problem he described in the note he enclosed did not fit the nickels. So I checked out his (then) recent purchases on ebay and saw that he had recently won rolls from other sellers. I contacted him and after we talked a bit he realized that he really wanted to return some other roll to some other seller. He even said, "Yeah, I couldn't find your nickels around here and wondered where they went. I really liked them. Can you send them back?" I sent them back, at my expense, and never heard from the guy again (including no feedback on ebay!), until today. He didn't use my name (Dear Steve; Hello Steve; Please help me Steve; Steve - how does it feel to be my best friend in the whole world?) in his email nor did he even use his own name at the end of the email. (Charles). The email address he shows is the same one he used back when we transacted in 05/2009. It does not appear that he "broadcast" this email to all of his contacts, just me. He does live in Ohio, as do I. The style of his writing in this email is the same (wrong words, lousy punctuation) as his earlier communications. I really think it IS him and not some offshoot of the Nigerian bank scheme. Perhaps I should send a roll of nickels to the UK and hope he gets them.? |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1000 Posts |
This happened to my wife. Someone actually took over her yahoo account. Changed her password...changed her security questions and then proceeded to send the same scripted plea for help to any email account in her contacts and also any email address saved in her inbox. Luckily she uses her email account regularly and we caught the hack takeover very quickly and fixed before too much damage was done. She actually had two former collegues email her back asking what they could do to help?   I don't know how they hacked in, but we think it was either thru Craigslist...or a phishing email from someone posing as Yahoo...or the fact she would usually click stay signed in on yahoo, maybe they actually hacked thru the firewall. Not sure, but it is kind of frightening. Does anyone more tech savvy then I, know how the hackers are able to do this? |
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Valued Member
United States
108 Posts |
I wonder if someone got ahold of his email account with all his addresses. Would be curious to know if other people that he has emailed in the past got the same message
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Bedrock of the Community
Canada
10743 Posts |
Hi, Steve, I would stay as far away from that deal as you can. that's sounds like the biggest scam yet!..  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4846 Posts |
my mom got an email from one of her last customers (she designs home theatres) the email said he was robbed and stuck in London also, his splg and a grammar was all wrong so my mom know what happened
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Pillar of the Community
United States
539 Posts |
yep, that one is going around. I actually sent a note via email to the person who supposedly sent it and that email was 'hijacked' and the hijacker actually replied (with an obvious caned reply). So I called my friend and he had been made aware of it as well. he had to change his email accounts, passwords and such. It was a mess. It is a good think I only sent $1000 to help get him out of London. LOL
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1882 Posts |
Assuming you still have his physical address (and that he has not moved), you could send him a snail mail letter (assuming form of communication still exists  ) telling him about the email you received. |
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Valued Member
United Kingdom
497 Posts |
Slightly freaky email, I had a similar problem when my email account was hacked a couple months ago, fortunately nothing major to fix it. London perhaps a fairly bad choice, while no doubt there are is gun crime in London, American family tourists getting robbed at gun point is unheard of. I've lived in London my whole life and travelled a lot, compared to a lot of other places guns are relitively uncommon here
www.kingstoncoincompany.co.uk
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2797 Posts |
I would have second thoughts about helping a family member with a request like this. The only thing I would offer him is advice ... "Go to the US Consular Office for Assistance". They are there to help in these kinds of situations. Definitely save that email for posterity.  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2602 Posts |
Wow. My immediate thought is "scam". Also, most people pre-book a hotel and have to show the credit card upon check-in and it sounds like the robbery happened after wards, so technically, his credit card would still get charge the hotel stay I would think and he doesn't need that at all. I'd go to the American Embassy for help if it happened to me, not send out an email to somebody I hardly know. I'd also be calling CLOSE friends and family. Yes he doesn't have cell phone to make calls, but surely there are good people in the hotel that will let you use their phone to place a few calls and I think they might not even add it to your hotel bill. And if he knows his bank account number 9which most people do), he can have money wired to him, I would think.
So my initial thought was "scam". My final thought is also "scam".
Edited by mycrob
08/13/2010 12:24 pm
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
1291 Posts |
One of the many odd things about this is that it really does "sound" like my one-time-only ebay customer. I went back and forth with him on email (back in 2009) and this is just exactly how he speak/writes, if you know what I mean. I'm not naive enough to send him a pile of cash, but I'm not going to be totally shocked if it really is HIM. When I get home today I'll sift through my old emails and find his phone number (in Toledo) and give him a call. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1000 Posts |
It is definitely not him, unless he is the one that hijacked my wife's email, because the body of the message is identical to the one sent from her email. Poor grammar or broken English in this case is just a coincidence, I am 125% sure.
I would not bother contacting him unless you are just wanting to be a good samaritian and warn him his email account is currently hacked.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
10284 Posts |
It's a scam! Do not respond and if I were you I would change my email address in ebay, Paypal my passwords and add this person to your blocked email. Scammers prey on nice people. They see kindness and good as a weakness. I don't know how they got me once, but one morning I went to ebay where I had a link that showed me what wheezydog was selling before they made us all so anonymous, and I was selling complete sets of golf clubs in a fancy leather bag and cart. Nice clubs and little wood mittens and all. It was a dutch auction, I also had some nice woods and drivers up as well and sets of irons and putters. I tried to sign in but I couldn't. They had my password changed and later I found that they had my email changed and the buy now went to a Paypal account that wasn't mine. I was lucky I checked it because nobody bought any of those items with Buy it now and I was able to get it all straightened out with ebay on the phone. These people are ugly. If I ever find a scammer in person, I just don't know what I'll do. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1291 Posts |
MINT_MARQ - Gotcha! Sorry...I didn't understand your original post to mean that the message your wife received was verbatim to mine.
Did your wife abandon that email address and get another?
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1000 Posts |
Nope...We were able to go through the Yahoo prompts to change the passwords and since have been very vigilant to make sure it does not happen again.  If only the Nigerian scammers would use their powers for good instead of evil we could solve the world hunger problem. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1418 Posts |
One of my friends was "stuck in the uk" too.
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Replies: 23 / Views: 3,584 |
Posted 08/13/2010 10:56 am
