Facebook Scam Leads Woman To Wire $4K Abroad
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Someone took over the Facebook account of a Cape Girardeau County resident, Grace Parry, changed the password so she couldn't access it and sent out messages saying she and her husband had been detained in London and needed money. She also was worried that whoever hacked into her Facebook account might also come to her door.
A Missouri woman was tricked into wiring about $4,000 to someone in England after receiving faked messages from a friend on Facebook asking for help, police said Wednesday.
Jayne Scherrman of Cape Girardeau wired the money through Western Union after receiving what she believed were several requests for help from her friend, Sgt. Jason Selzer said.
Police were notified about the scam on Aug. 26, Selzer said. They believe someone took over the Facebook account of a Cape Girardeau County resident, Grace Parry, changed the password so she couldn't access it and sent out messages saying she and her husband had been detained in London and needed money.
Scherrman received several requests for help Aug. 25 and 26, and was also called by a man with a British accent who pretended to be an immigration official, Selzer said.
"He said the woman (Parry) and her husband were being detained and that more money was needed to fly them home," Selzer said. "She sent three different wire transfers to London."
Parry said the experience has been painful.
"I not only felt angry, but violated," she told the Southeast Missourian newspaper. She worried that whoever hacked into her computer might also come to her door.
Parry, who hadn't traveled to England, tried to access her account to warn other friends but couldn't. She suspended the account, and her husband posted warnings about the scam.
Parry and Scherrman did not immediately return phone messages seeking comment Wednesday from The Associated Press.
Selzer said it's unlikely the woman who was scammed will get her money back.
He said people should remember to change their passwords often and to be careful about posting personal information.
Palo Alto, California-based Facebook said Internet schemes like this one aren't uncommon. Facebook has systems to detect suspicious behavior tied to compromised accounts and blocks it when it possible, company spokesman Simon Axten wrote in an e-mail.
"We're also working with law enforcement and with Western Union (a wire transfer company commonly used by the scammers) to investigate specific cases and improve education," he wrote.
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kashinomi / 09.09.2009
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Thanks for great info...
There was a lot of warning about what "social" network sites do... and it just shows that Facebook is full with open holes.... Almost as Window$$$. Evade thing which makes you vulnerable.
Btw, sitting at home and chatting BEHIND the monitor, dont make you strong, beautifull, loved, or whatever... it just makes you stupid if you dont know what's lurking outside.
I'm not saying that all people are bad, but we have a saying... If you got burn on hot milk, youll blow at the yogurt too..
Chears, and be smart
this scam has been going for a very long time and it's not just confined to facebook, have you ever received an email from your email provider , sent from a regular account, with some crap in it about your account being closed and that you must reply with all your login details? check the header and IP, it will originate from West or South Africa, guaranteed!
A British MP got conned with it not too long ago, the scammer had no clue who's email he had and sent out emails to other MPs in the address list, with pretty much the same story as above! nobody sent any money as it was quite obvious that the MP in question was not stuck in an African country as they were all able to see him everyday in the houses of parliament!
it has nothing to do with facebook being hacked, just someone was careless and gave out their passwords.
check 419eater.com for much more info on internet scams and what you can do to protect yourself or to safely waste the scammers time. make sure to read the letters archive, some extremely funny stuff there!
I know about 419....
Problem is not that some people USE other weaknesses... Problem is that people blindly trust in what machine transfers thry the net.
Why somebody who is a frend and need money just dial a phone? That's can be verified. And we all know our frends voices.
And facebook? Especially the part "three times wired money"? Darn, that is quite convincing stuff...
I'm sorry for the scam victim. And I know that whenever there is a possibility to get easy money, people will go for it...
And btw, I was a witness for a 419 letter (written on paper with a stamp) originating from Africa (I think it was from Lagos like most of today's e-mails) way back from 1995 or '96.
Just... I wish that people can be more aware of the danger of the internet... as the benefit from it.
Internet is a great library, excelent teacing tool, and a option for communication betwen people. People has other, more important ways of communication, not just thry e-mail, or tweets or facebook, or irc or whatever. If you're unsure about the message, wait... it will become more clear, or if it's fake message, sender WILL make an error.
My humble opinion...
yup 419 goes way back to an old scam called the Spanish Prisoner, where the scammer would send out letters by post telling the recipient that he was wrongfully being held in a jail and had to buy his way out, he would repay with a vast fortune he had hidden away that he did not want his captors to know about. Some estimates say that scam is over 100 years old if not more. The internet has just made it much easier to do these things.
The great thing about the internet is that anyone can get on and tell you anything
the bad thing about the internet is that anyone can get on and tell you anything!
I have personally spoken to and tried to warn victims of what is happening and that they are being scammed, 9 times out of 10 they will cease all communication with the scammer, unfortunately there is still a high rate of folk who will still send money in the belief that they are either helping someone in a desperate situation, or that they will be getting thousands of times the amount that they are paying. it is extremely infuriating at times, we try and try to convince these people they are being scammed yet they still send money, sometimes huge amounts, then 2 or 3 months down the line they realise that they have been scammed and then get back in contact with us hoping we can get their money back. Which has long gone up the nose of a scammer.
what about google Adsense? it is scam or true base online making money?
I think error in user not in system... and there's alot of shiffing, fishing people acc.. it's on u, wanna believe or not.. error in user...
great info, tnx!
someone make a tagged account for a friend of mines using her email, using her my space pics and have pics of her friends and family. she is so scared. she doesn't know how to close it because she doesn't have the password. I never trust these sites
thats why you NEVER click on links that you do NOT know
I never fall for any of these
so how many scamming sites you want!! :)
no links..plz hotfile