The fake email was sent to an array of people, "from family and friends and contacts, to people who used to mend my car in 2009, a solicitor from two years back etc". Corrigan, who lives in south London, says he was surprised at how many people were nearly taken in by it. The email sent in his name was identical to the one sent in Beale's name – even down to the same "hotel" phone number. They don't have a number or email address."Ĭhris Corrigan, a newspaper sub-editor, is another victim of the "mugged in Athens" email. Beale says: "I tried to get hold of Google you're not able to. It doesn't sound as if Google was much help. As far as Beale is aware, no one has handed over any money.īeale, who has now changed all his passwords, has no idea why he was targeted - "I was assuming they have some sort of computer programme". In some of his emails, the crook – rather carelessly – signed himself as "Keith".
"I think some people actually spoke to him on the phone." "Apparently the hacker started corresponding with people, trying to get money out of them," says Beale. The scam email asks people to get in touch with the "sender" via a "ymail" account that is almost identical to their Gmail address. While he could access his account, everything had been deleted, "so there was no way for me to send an email to everyone to say that it was fake". I was sitting in the Royal Courts of Justice when I got a call from my secretary saying 'come back to the office - all these people are ringing us asking if you're OK'." "It went to everybody in my Gmail account. "Some people did believe it," he told Money. Up and down the country, people with Google email accounts have been affected by this scam, which is a little more persuasive than it might be as a result of coinciding with the summer holidays, when it is perfectly plausible that someone might be visiting Greece.īeale, of course, hadn't been to Athens and hadn't been robbed. As well as hacking into people's accounts to send out the fake message, the fraudster deletes every one of their victim's emails and contacts, presumably to stop them quickly getting hold of their contacts to tell them to ignore the previous message.īeale wasn't the only victim of this hi-tech hacking attack. You will have realised by now this was a scam – albeit one of the most convincing we have encountered.
The email address was indeed his, but the use of the word "cellphone" jarred slightly, and surely there would be other more obvious candidates to help – close friends, relatives, work colleagues etc – than us? We have to admit that we did nothing. Our immediate reaction was: poor Ned – what a nightmare. You can reach me via email or the hotel's desk phone 0030 6. "Let me know if you need my details (full names/location) to effect a transfer. It went on to say that Western Union was the fastest option for wiring funds. I need you to lend me money, will pay back once I get this over with," said the email. I have made contact with my bank but the best they can do is to mail me a new card which will take two to four days to arrive here. I need your help flying back home as I am trying to raise some money. It said Beale had been robbed during a trip to Athens – all his belongings were stolen at gunpoint, and he was desperate for help.
However, the email we received recently from Ned Beale, a solicitor who wrote a series of articles for Money two years ago, stopped us in our tracks. There are the "phishing" ones that purport to come from your bank the ones saying you're due a tax refund the "you've won the lottery" ones and, of course, the ones from wealthy foreigners in Africa who need help moving squillions of dollars out of the country. H ere at Guardian Money we've seen pretty much every scam email going.