Gardaí warn public on email cash scam

Gardaí are warning internet users to be wary of emails from friends claiming they have been robbed while abroad and need money to get home.

The warning comes after a Cork man had emails sent to friends and contacts from his gmail email address, claiming that he had been robbed while in Edinburgh.

The email said: “I want to say I’m really sorry I didn’t inform you about my travelling to United Kingdom, I am here for a seminar.

“It was something urgent which I did not even inform anyone about the trip. But I just got myself in serious mess now.

“I am stranded here in United Kingdom, I was robbed on my arrival and everything I have was stolen from me including my luggage, mobile phone, diary, and my wallet which contains all my money and my bank cards. I am left alone with the cloth I am putting on and my passport.”

The email asks for $1,800 from the email recipient to help him settle his bills, and asks that the money be sent by Western Union.

The man who owns the email address became aware of it when friends contacted him on his mobile phone about the email.

Fraud squad officers warned this morning that extreme caution needs to be taken by the recipients of such emails.

One officer pointed out that the fact that the email is in broken English and asks for dollars to be sent should serve as a warning that the email is not from who it claims to be from.

He added that reference to the mobile phone being stolen is included in a bid to prevent the recipient from making contact with the email address owner before sending the requested sum of money.

He said this type of fraud attempt was relatively new and that it appears that email accounts have been hacked by fraudsters.

Article courtesy of The Evening Echo newspaper.