Over the weekend, a friend told me that she had received an email from her friend, purportedly requesting for an urgent loan. Although the sender’s email address was exactly her friend’s (Yahoo account), she was absolutely sure that her friend would never have made such a request.
This morning, I found a similar email in my mailbox and the sender’s address belongs to an ex-schoolmate. So, I am certain that a (large?) number of Yahoo accounts have been hijacked by Nigerian 419 scammmers.
I have removed my friend’s Yahoo identity from the verbatim below.
From: richard tan [mailto:******@yahoo.com]
Sent: Sunday, 8 March, 2009 12:51 PM
To: ******@yahoo.com
Subject: Please i need your help
I am in a hurry writing you this message, i am sorry i didn’t inform you about my urgent trip to London i don’t have much time on the pc here,so i have to brief you my present situation which requires your urgent response actually, I had a trip to London yesterday but unfortunately for me all my money got stolen at the hotel where i lodged due to a robbery incident that happened in the hotel.I had been so restless since last night cos i have been without any money i am even oweing the hotel here as well moreover the Hotel’s telephone lines here got dissconnected by the robbers and they are trying to get them fixed back i have access to only emails at the library because my mobile cant work here so i didnt bring it along,please i want you to help me with money so please can you send me $2500 so when i return back i would refund it back to you as soon as i get home,I am so confused right now and dont know what to do,you can have it sent through Money Gram or Western Union Money Transfer so will get it immediately its sent but let me know if you can helpme then i will make findings.please let me hear from you so i can give you my the address and name where you can send the money to today please.Its really urgent for me as i dont know what to do right now than to leave here soonest you send it to me and i’ll pay you back immediately i get home..Thanks alot for your kindness,
I will really appreciate your quick response.
Best Regards
Tan
-Private & Confidential-
This message (including any attachments) contains confidential information intended for a specific individual and purpose, and is protected by law. If you are not the intended recipient, you should delete this message and hereby notified that any disclosure, copying, or distribution of this message (or any part thereof), or the taking of any action based on it, is strictly prohibited.
The mail headers showed the sender’s IP address as 206.190.49.152, which indeed belongs to Yahoo. It is not located in UK, but in the USA (according to http://www.geobytes.com/IpLocator.htm?GetLocation).
A search on the Internet for similar cases suggests that my friend has probably fallen victim to phishing attack and revealed his Yahoo account login information to scammer at some point.
If you receive a similar scam email, contact the sender (not via this hijacked email address, of course) as soon as possible to have his/her password changed, and to do so using a trusted computer free of malware (virus, spybot, rootkit, etc.)