The other day I received an email "from" an American friend. The subject was "Treat as Urgent". The email read:
Liz
I am writing to ask for your help. I am presently in Malaysia for a short visit and unfortunately I was mugged at the park of the hotel where I stay.
I am stranded right now having lost my wallet (containing all my credit cards, cash and cell phone) to the muggers. I have reported to the police and made contact with the embassy also and they only cleared me of my traveling documents.
Western Union is the fastest option to wire funds to me. Let me know if you need me to forward the details(Full names/location) to effect the transfer and I promise to reimburse you as soon as I return.
Waiting to hear from you. Thanks
There was no signature at the end. I immediately knew this was a scam, and alerted my friend by emailing her alternate email address. She replied that she had been locked out of her gmail account.
Now I know these scams have been going around for some time, they started by saying there was a fire in the hotel room. Then they changed to these mugging/robbed ones. The first ones were in a park in London, then the scammer moved to N.Wales.
It seems you are asked to send money to a Western Union office and that the scammer is actually in London / N.Wales to collect the money. They use Wester Union cos its so quick and they get the money easily.
So I was intrigued about the email I received, claiming my friend is in Malaysia. I wondered if the fact that I am in Malaysia is pure coincidence. I did some googling and bingo - it seems the scammers have been operating in Malaysia since at least Aug 2010. They are using a WU in KL. And the IP has been traced to a mobile in Msia.
There is so much on the internet about these scams. One person reported "A quick 'google' on the specific text "unfortunately,i was mugged at the park of the hotel" produced over 45,000 results".
