Here is a Facebook Money Transfer Scam I got hit up with today. Now I know this person from a long time ago. It was completely random early morning chat conversation. I knew something was fishy, and I followed two courses of action.
1. I alerted Facebook that I thought her account was hacked. This link will allow you to report Facebook Scams.
2. I contacted the local police in Cambridge, UK and they said there is not much they could do. There have been a bunch of scams that have been reported to them, so they were well aware of this. But it was difficult for them to pursue it further.
I really hope my friend is not in trouble. I could have quizzed more to ask a personal question of how she knew me, etc. But I didn’t do this. She has since emailed me multiple times, asking me to send the details of the wire transfer to an email account. Seems she has access to my friend’s email and Facebook accounts.
Here is the Facebook chat conversation I had with the scammer:
Heather
hey
how are you doing ?
8:48amDerek
Good morning
I’m allright - working - what are you up to?
8:49amHeather
not good at the moment in a deep mess
8:49amDerek
what happened?
8:49amHeather
am stuck in London i went there on a short vacation
8:49amDerek
oh jeez
why are you stuck?
8:50amHeather
I was mugged at a gun point last night all cash on me was stolen my cell and credit card off me
8:51amDerek
omg
that’s terrible
freaky
scary
8:51amHeather
I thank God am still alive and am still with my passport …am freaked out here i need your help
8:52amDerek
what do you need?
8:53amHeather
am having a little problem in settling the hotel bills before leaving i need you to loan me some few bucks
8:54amDerek
how can I get you the money?
8:54amHeather
you can get the money wire to me Via western union on my name
Do you know any western union outlet around you ?
8:55amDerek
yeah there are some close by
just send it to you?
is there some number?
8:55amHeather
all you need is my name and my location
8, Scotland Road Industrial Estate, Dry Drayton Cambridge CB23 8AT , United Kingdom
Heather S*****
8:57amDerek
OK
It may take me a couple hours to get over there -
how much do you need?
8:57amHeather
1450
8:58amDerek
euros or $
8:58amHeather
euros
can you head down there now
8:58amDerek
woah that’s a lot of cash
have a 9 AM meeting
after that I open up
8:59amHeather
I promise i will def refund it as soon as am back home
8:59amDerek
OK - where are you living these days?
9:00amHeather
am in a public library now …am freaked out here
can you head down to the nearest western union around you ..
9:01amDerek
yes
9:01amHeather
how long would it take you ?
9:03amDerek
1 hour or so
9:03amHeather
ok
i want you to get the western union transfer details send to my email address
in case am not online
9:04amDerek
ok
9:04amHeather
*******@yahoo.com
9:04amDerek
what email?
OK
I can do that
9:05amHeather
I want you to send me a test mail now ..
Beware of Facebook Phishing Scams. It’s scary to get hit up for so much money and if you don’t know it’s real, better to be safe than sorry. Certainly don’t send money via Western Union as it’s hard to track, and you could simply lose your money w/o helping anyone. I hope to connect w/ my friend at some point - once she regains her accounts. I am not sure how to reach her now, because I believe all her emails to be compromised.
Tags: Facebook, phishing, scams, Social Media Marketing
Wow, that is crazy, now phishers are on IM. Unreal. Thanks for sharing that, Derek!
My moms accounts were taken over today by the same people only the people they contacted were people just on my moms list but that I had went to school with and were my friends so they called me to verify. I reported her facebook and her email account but couldn’t do anything else as they changed her passwords so her accounts couldn’t be logged into. Then confronted whoever was on the profile and they ended up blocking me from seeing anything that was going on, my friend posted a message on the wall of the profile to let people know it wasn’t really her and had been hacked but the hacker keeps deleting them. Hopefully they figure it out soon enough but my mom’s scared to use facebook anymore. My aunt things that just by opening an email or message they send that she’ll get a worm which will spread to all her contacts giving them information about passwords so they can take those over too.
I just had that happed to me today 3-31-2010
I hate the phishing emails these people appear to get more desperate by the day I recieve 2 or 3 every day and submit them to phishtrackers a site I found which lets you submit them anonymously.
I just got hit with this same scam. I was concerened but skeptical while I was asking some simple questions I new they could answer I googled some of the text I was getting and was sent to this page. I received this scam through the facebook chat.
Thanks for publishing this and be carefull out there all!