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I just got this email. It appears that Wilson's gotten the London Mugging e-mail virus:

I'm writing this to you with all regrets in my heart, I came down here to London England for a short vacation unfortunately i was mugged at the park of the hotel where i stayed,all cash,credit card and cell were stolen off me but luckily for me i still have my passports with me.
I've been to the embassy and the Police here but they're not helping issues at all and my flight leaves in less than 3hrs from now but am having problems settling the hotel bills and the hotel manager won't let me leave until i settle the bills,I'm freaked out at the moment.Got nothing left with me..i was mugged off all i got,can you please help me out with some cash?.I promise to pay back as soon as i get back....So freaked out here

--
Wilson York

I've never seen that email before...but a quick google check shows different variations. I wonder if the guy in Ghana with the dead relative ever gets this one?

I got this too. I knew it was fake (Wilson would never react in such a manner), but this is a pretty scary virus nonetheless. I could see where perhaps older or less technoalleroundry people could be hoodwinkled.

Any any case, maybe this will help serve CTN and bring Wilson out of the woodwork.

-EarlJam

P.S. It would really suck if indeed, this WERE a genuine message from Wilson, and we are all like:

EarlJam wrote:
P.S. It would really suck if indeed, this WERE a genuine message from Wilson, and we are all like:

According to his FB page, Wilson has become addicted to playing Family Feud.

My email from Wilson ended up in my spam folder.

His facebook page now says he was not mugged, and is not stuck in London, but if anyone wants to wire him money, they are welcome to do so

windsor wrote:His facebook page now says he was not mugged, and is not stuck in London, but if anyone wants to wire him money, they are welcome to do so

windsor wrote:His facebook page now says he was not mugged, and is not stuck in London, but if anyone wants to wire him money, they are welcome to do so

OK, I'll start.

devildeac wrote:

windsor wrote:His facebook page now says he was not mugged, and is not stuck in London, but if anyone wants to wire him money, they are welcome to do so

OK, I'll start.

Hey, hey, hey. While you're busy passin' it out...I've got this little construction effort goin' on around here...

captmojo wrote:

devildeac wrote:

windsor wrote:His facebook page now says he was not mugged, and is not stuck in London, but if anyone wants to wire him money, they are welcome to do so

OK, I'll start.

Hey, hey, hey. While you're busy passin' it out...I've got this little construction effort goin' on around here...

I'll help with that, too.



Does that help?

devildeac wrote: I'll help with that, too.



Does that help?

Why, Hell yeah! Especially the toilet paper.

My sister fell victim to those scammers (or some friends of theirs; the email sent from her account was slightly different) a couple weeks ago. They took over her email, changed the password so she couldn't get in, and when she regained access the next day, they had deleted all of her old emails and contacts. Assholes.

Her neighbor, who obviously knew it was fake, but was curious how the scam worked, replied to the email, and got back a message saying she should send something like $1000 to Western Union in London. I guess maybe they have somebody on the inside there or some way to fake a US passport. I got a very worried voicemail from my mother-in-law, since they by sheer dumb luck had the great fortune to have hijacked the account of a travel agent, so it was at least somewhat believable to someone not familiar with this kind of con.

One of the support engineers for Hotmail says that most of these account hacks are from password phishing, either by a guessable password (a simple word, something not strong) or from keystroke logging at a public machine/kiosk.

In case you ever need it for Hotmail/Live: http://explore.live.com/windows-live-ac ... hacked-faq