FYI
I got an email yesterday from my uncle Mike. It said that he was in London, has been robbed at gun point, his money, credit cards, and cell phone were taken. He is stranded and would like me to send him $2,000 which he will return after he gets home. At first I did not know what to think, but the bad English gave me my first tip that the person writing this email was not my uncle, so I called his house, and my ancle Mike answered the phone. He was not stranded in London, he was watching the football game at home, so I forwarded him the email I recieved. Don't ask me how they knew what names, and email adresses to use, because I can't figure that one out.

It's just crazy about how much information these scum bags can get about a person from the internet. I'm glad to hear that you diden't fall for it. The sad part is that there's folks out there that most likely have fallen for it.
Bob.

My uncle called me this morning, and told me that he had a virus last week, so I guess that was how they got into his address book.

I had a hold put on my credit card last week. Someone got my credit card number. And the interesting thing- it didn't even come from me. Turns out some credit card fraud rings have software that cranks out 16-digit numbers in hopes of finding one that matches a credit card. When they get likely ones, they try to push through a transaction, and if it goes, they know they've got a valid number. This time, the random numbers spit out my card's number.

Fortunately, the bank recognized the transaction recipient (some dating service) as one used for fraudulent number verification purposes, and put the hold on the card.

Still, it's a pain to have to have your credit card cancelled and reissued. Lucky I haven't used it for two years or so.

We've been getting calls from someone who says we need to call them back, because the status of our checking account has changed. So I keep wondering, if I call back, are they going to ask me for my name and account number so they can look up the file?????

As Mr. Rogers would have put it: Can you say... sucker?

The scam is well known, at least it was written up in my local newspaper as recently as a couple of months back. A version of the same scam appears in the movie "Nine Queens" (2000).

If the only personal information they had is that your Uncle's name was "Mike", then that could be a simple coincidence. Heck, I have an Uncle Mike. It's a pretty popular name after all.

Balducci
They knew my uncle's last name, and maybe it was just lucky for them, but he travels to England a couple times a year.

I got a call from my bank a few weeks ago about a questionable charge that went through on my debit card, $400 for some boutique in the islands...and another one for $50 went out soon after. With the legitimate transactions that had to go through before I knew there was an issue, with overdraft fees, I was out $800. Thankfully, my bank refunded all the money.

If you ever get one of these calls, just call the bank directly.

Michel Angelo?

Tommy
My brother's name is Michael Angello, but my uncle Mike is my mothers brother, and his last name is different than mine.

Al, they often will cruise places like face book and see someone going on a trip then when out of town do the scam and it gets more bites.

I received one from a former coworker. It claimed she was mugged in England. When I called her, she was in Hawaii.

Western Union sent me one yesterday, with a link to claim the $400,000 waiting for me.

Al,

I got this email about a month ago. In my case it was sent from a friend. I new it was BS, because this guy hates to fly. So, there's no way it would be from him. Who ever sent the bogus email got my address through his Facebook account.

It was a mess for him to straighten out.

No problems on my end so far.

I got a call from a friend at 5:00 AM when he was on vacation in Germany. He did something stupid and got thrown in the drunk tank at the police station and wanted me to bail him out (mind you, I'm in Kansas City). I told him he was an idiot and hung up.