TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Weird Email from Wilfred Brooks

We got an odd email this morning from W.B, I believe he may have hacked. Did anyone else get this? It read, good morning, how are you? I need your help now get back to me as soon as possible. I would recommend not answering it.

Same thing here and my thoughts the same as yours. I had corresponded with him a while back.

I suggest deleting it without opening it and be sure it is removed.

Yes, think it got hacked. Do not reply as until he fixes it the replies will got to a spammer. Then you are on a spam list.

Quite a few got the same email, so probably he got hacked and the spammer sent out a message to his entire address book and the list of emails that he has received.

Only thing different about this one from some others I have seen, is that he is not stranded in some Asian country without any money.

After making inquiry, this was the response:

Good to hear from you. I'm sorry to bother you with this but it is a bad time for me . I had to make a sudden trip to Kharkov Ukraine due to some urgent matters to help my sick sister, she was diagnosed with (Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia) a type of Blood Cancer and had been undergoing treatment lately. The news of her illness arrived to me as an emergency.

The hospital management is demanding for a deposit before they can carry out the surgery operation to save her life and I traveled down here with little money because I never expected things to be the way it is right now. Can you assist me with a loan of $1,500 USD or any amount you can afford at the moment? I'll surely pay back as soon as I get back home.

Please, let me know if you can be of help so I can advise on how to transfer the funds. I’ll be happy to hear from you soon regarding my request and please remember to keep this private.

Regards,

Ok, so now the place is Ukraine. Nah, do not think so. <img src="http://65.246.19.145/forums/images/graemlins/duh.gif" alt="" />

Has anyone called Wilfred to let him know?

Someone should let him know he has a sister in the Ukraine. He will be as surprised as we were <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/jester.gif" alt="" />

He is there now so must know. Lol

Think I'll send 10,000. Not. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/jester.gif" alt="" />

When I was hacked I supposedly was stranded in Madrid, Spain and the dollar amount was $1200. Looks like inflation has even hit the criminal spam industry. My friends saw the humor in the message they received but the sad part is that some people fall for these schemes.

Yes, some people send their life savings trying to help someone, only to find out they were victims of a scam. Also, the people that do open the e-mails might also allow access to their computer system. Best to delete any suspicious emails without opening, but I'm sure most of the enlightened TTOLers know that.

As if the rest of his message/request is not suspicious enough...there is no such thing as a "surgery/operation" to treat leukemia. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/duh.gif" alt="" /> They are not too bright.

PLEASE! Will someone who knows him please let him know? The ongoing thread here isn't doing anyone any good.

Crap like this is sent out daily and most don't even know it. It's spam. Nothing you can do other than maybe change your password. Not something to get alarmed about. (Not to anyone in general. Just a statement). I just looked at my spam filter and there are 6 of this type of email.

He already knows about it and is taking corrective action.

Funny thing is I have never sent an email to Wilfred but I also got the email.
Is it possible this site has been hacked but they sent out messages from your sponsors????

NO. Absolutely not.

Thanks!

FYI...if you get a weird looking e mail from anybody you know...before opening it hover your mouse over the address it came from...almost always the return address will NOT be from your friend..which usually means their e mail address list has been hacked. DO NOT open it..immediately delete and then empty your " deleted" folder and then e mail your friend and let them know their address list has been hacked.

Very much agreed on most of your note. With regard to emailing your friend, most likely that will do no good, unless you send it to a different email. The hacker normally diverts any returning email, so that they can respond to the duped people to get their money. Best to call the person and let them know.

I have corresponded with Wilfred and have him and his van for a day in Oct.
I have not received this strange email, so I suspect the names were picked up from some place other than Wilfred.

No he told me that his account got hit.