BiggerPockets

I got the email in last hour, who got the same?

"I'm writing this with tears in my eyes,I came down here to Wales United Kingdom  for a short vacation and i was mugged at gun point last night,at the park of the hotel  where we lodged all cash,credit cards and cell were stolen off me,thank God we have our life and passport.
 
I've been to the embassy and the Police here but they're not helping issues at all,they asked us to wait for 3weeks but we can't wait till then.My flight  leaves in less than 3hrs from now and am having problems settling the hotel bills.
 
The hotel manager won't let us leave until we settle the hotel bills.You can speak with him through this number +447024078842 his name is Larry.am so  freaked out at the moment
You can wire the money to me through western-union all you need is name on my passport and location below.\
 
Name:Tra.. Tra..
Location:9 Moorgate,Ormskirk United Kingdom, L39 4RT
Amount: $2,250
 
I'll def refund your cash as soon as i get home.
 
Warm Regards."

I guess his email account is hacked and this mail is sent to all his contacts. Please dont send any money to this address.
Thank you.

-Uwe

p.s.: I archive this mail for police investigations.

Most likely this is simply a spammer who has picked up this member's e-mail address from some other source and is using it as the "from" field in the e-mails. Forging e-mail headers is trivial.

Its possible its a virus on his machine or perhaps his mail server that's using the addresses.

That's a good reminder to ALWAYS be careful with e-mails, even if they appear to be from a trusted source. I've had several today that appear to be shipment notifications from Amazon, but all the links take you to who knows where.

Seems like a classic Nigerian fraud.

I guess someone who wires money based on such an email probably deserves to lose it.

I've gotten one of these before...months back. They have nothing to do with BP - just happened that a member with your email probably got the email hacked

I DID receive the same email, as I'm on the member's email list. Found out from him later that his gmail account was hacked, so this is not just a spammer at work. The hackers changed his pw, and now he has no access to his email and/or his contacts in order to let them know what's going on.

It is how we learn, don´t use easy passwords for any important online accounts!!!!!

Best is like that: XcV6Qkz8,jJ6.

yes include comma or dot (if provided) and numbers, use of capital and small initial letters

-Uwe

Vikram,
yes its not easy to remember but you can write this down on paper. I use four of this passwords, at begin hard now I memorised all.

Online account hack is also only possible when accounts not protected with up to five tries or so. After sixth wrong try account should be locked and user automatical informed.

-Uwe

That might not be as prudent as it sounds due to what is posted in this quote:

Obviously, the hacked email account is now in full control of the hackers, so an email verification is something they are HOPING will be done so that they can lure in the unsuspecting to complete the scam.

It's a cold, cruel world out there - you always have to be vigilant, and even then you can still fall victim.

Thanks Steve, first time after receiving I would only delete this email but I thought no you must inform all others it´s better.

Member from BP is inactive since three month so I guess he has not think about that.

-Uwe

Jon is right. You can never trust what a site will do with your PW. We encrypt all passwords and don't have any way of recovering them other than to re-generate a new one if someone loses it. That said, I've seen some sites send unencrypted PW's over APIs, and all sorts of other scary practices. Be careful out there!