One day last week, I got an email from a friend. It wasn’t my best friend, but it was someone that I’d known over the years. According to the email, he was in the Philippines for some program that had, by the way, gone really well for him. Except, he’d just been mugged at gun point and all his valuables, credit cards, cash and phone had been stolen. Poor thing needed my help to get home and could I please send a Western Union wire transfer of a large sum of money to him immediately.
Yeah, I got right on that. Right after I fed my unicorn.
My first thought was if everything had been stolen, how was he sending me the email? He must have had enough change left in his pockets for a mocha double latte at the Philippines Starbucks so he could utilize the free wi-fi, except I’m sure his computer was nicked with the rest of his valuables in the mugging, right? Maybe somebody at Starbucks left their email open when they went to the bathroom, so he quickly logged in to send the message to me. That’s probably what he did.
My second tip off that maybe, oh just maybe, his account had been hacked was him sending it to me in the first place. I’m guessing if this guy is stuck out of the country, half beaten, broke and needing help, he’d have to get pretty far down his emergency contact list before he got to me. Unless his wife, kids, parents, next door neighbors, insurance agent and college roommate had all refused the charges for his international collect call for help, I’m probably not going to be the one he asks for cash. I’m not sure he’d even have asked me for the time of day in person, let alone a major loan via email.
I find it interesting that there are people smart enough to hack into someone’s email account and send out a message to everyone on the contact list with the signature of the poor hacking victim. Yet, the hacker is stupid enough to think anyone would fall for the hoax. And as soon as my friend gets home from the Philippines, heals up and gets a new phone, I’m going to call and tell him that!
