This morning I received an email from a very dear friend.

The email:

"

Dear,

Hope all is well with you? sorry to bother you at this time, please I need your urgent assistance, I had a trip to United Kingdom yesterday for a program, and I was attacked last night by some robbers on my way to the hotel and they took all my money from me, including my phone, right now I don't have any cash on me and I need to pay for a return ticket and make arrangement back home. I want you to kindly assist me with £750 (GBP) or any amount you can afford to help me, I will pay you back when I return. I had to walk down to a public cafe to quickly send you this mail as I do not have access to any phone.
I will be waiting for your urgent response.

"

 

She is a music reporter, so she tends to travel a lot. We hadn't been talking for a little while and the story is completely plausible.
After I replied, I received another mail containing this:

"

Thanks for the mail and concern, I am somewhere in London at the moment and I have lost contact with everyone ever since the incident took place. I am still not in total control of my self and the bad news is that, I cant access a phone at the moment.

"

That's where common sense came into play. My friend is smart, way smarter than that. If she's in a hotel, she can use the phone there, she can call the police, the ambassy, she has a twitter account, a facebook account, she cannot have lost contact with anybody at all.

Passed the knee jerk reflex of helping a friend in need, I smell fish and give a try to her BBM, which I should have done in the very first place. She replied.

"

I know, my email has been hacked

"

It's sad when you have to doubt your best friend's words. And it's sad when you are rewarded for your lack of trust.
But that's the reality of things, especially on the internet.
So, one more time, I'm giving you a checklist here, in case of doubt.

The anti scam checklist:

• Doubt everything councerning money
• Call your contacts on their phone
• Check their social media account as well
• Ask for proof of identity, something personal
• Use common sense
• Never communicate sensitive info online

Happy I didn't fall for it, happier if you don't ;)

Posted via email from @Danny_Fr