Yes, Edna’s email was hacked again January 11, 2012. Edna is at home at the hospital. She is not stranded in Spain.
They have, again, deleted her recent correspondence and her entire Contacts list, so if you have any ongoing correspondence with Edna, please send her a copy of those recent emails.
If you have corresponded with Edna about anything ongoing or upcoming then be aware that Edna has lost everybody’s contact information and all of her emails. Please re-send the last email so that she can resume wherever you and she have left off.
New updates will appear at the bottom of this message.
Did you receive an email, purportedly from Edna, where she pleads for help from you because her passport and cash have been stolen while traveling? Don’t worry. Edna is perfectly fine.
Please ignore the email. It is a fraud.
HELP ME PLEASE
Hope you get this on time, I made a trip to Aberdeen, Scotland for a volunteer Medical Program (VMP) and had my bag stolen from me with my passport, credit cards and mobile phones in it. The embassy is willing to help by letting me fly without my passport, I just have to pay for a ticket and settle Hotel bills. Unfortunately for me, I can’t have access to funds without my credit card, I’ve made contact with my bank but they need more time to come up with a new one. I was thinking of asking you to lend me some quick funds that I can give back as soon as I get in. I really need to be on the next available flight.
I can forward you details on how you can get the funds to me.
I await your response…
Edna.
This is a common tactic used by thieves. There are more examples in these links:
1) alert-no-you-dont-have-a-friend-who-was-mugged-in-london-today
2) Be Wary when friends email for Money
3) Friend in Trouble Scam
4) Friends, Family in trouble overseas
5) Old Friend in Trouble Scam
6) Facebook London Scam
7) Discussion at Snopes.com
If you go to Reply to the email – don’t actually send anything, just begin to reply – then you may notice that the recipient address spells hospital with a #1 at the end (…hospita1@yahoo.com) – a completely different recipient, not Edna. We sure hope that nobody falls for this trick.
We sent a fake message, “How can I help?” and got back the following email response from the thieves:
Thanks for writing back and also for your concern.I need a quick loan to sort out myself here and get on the next available flight home as soon as possible.I need 2000Pounds [over $3000 USD] that will be refunded as soon as I get home but if you do not have up to that please send what you can.
You can make funds available to me through western union money transfer to the following details below for swift pick up:
Name: Edna Ismail
Address: 126 Gorgie road,Aberdeen, EH126TX, Scotland.Once sent kindly send me the MTCN,Sender’s name and address so I can present these information for pick up.
I await you response. Thanks
On the advice of an FBI agent who specializes in fraud, we sent out the following message to the entire newsletter mailing list. Note that the thieves used Edna’s personal email account – which has now been erased – and not the newsletter mailing list (to which they have no access). But it’s the best we could do to try to reach as many recipients of the email as possible.
We regret bothering so many people, but we are acting upon advice of the FBI in warning you that there has been a fake email sent with the subject line: “HELP ME PLEASE!” and purporting to be from Edna Adan. A portion of the message reads:
“Hope you get this on time, I made a trip to Aberdeen, Scotland for a volunteer Medical Program (VMP) and had my bag stolen from me with my passport, credit cards and mobile phones in it. The embassy is willing to help by letting me fly without my passport, I just have to pay for a ticket and settle Hotel bills.”
The thieves got into Edna’s personal email account and sent this message to everyone on her contact list. They then erased her contact list, together with all of her personal emails and files. If you replied to the fake email then you were in communication with thieves. Their reply message asks for 2000 pounds to be sent immediately by Western Union to a location in Scotland.
1) We posted an announcement to the blog: http://www.ednahospital.org/2011/07/scam-alert/
2) We posted also to Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/edna.hospital
3) We reported the matter to Western Union, advising them to block wire transfers which match the particulars detailed in the thieves’ email.
4) We contacted the Aberdeen, Scotland, police.
5) We contacted Yahoo, asking them to close the thieves’ email account
6) We contacted the FBI.
The FBI said there was nothing more to be done, except to warn people who may have received the email, so this is that warning. You may well not have received the fake email – this newsletter goes to many more people than were in Edna’s personal address book, but it’s the best we can do.
If you sent money: Contact Western Union right away. They may be able to cancel the transfer and restore your money to you.
If you’d like to comment or to check for updates, then please look at this page: http://www.ednahospital.org/2011/07/scam-alert/
Again, we are sorry to bother you – almost certainly unnecessarily – but we wanted to do all that we could to avoid anybody being cheated.
As of a short time ago, Yahoo still has not closed the thieves’ email account. We are very disappointed in Yahoo.
Well, here is a development. Yahoo STILL has not closed the thief’s email account so we carried on the charade a bit further emailing, “We’ll send you money ASAP. What hotel are you in? I want to phone you and make certain you are all right.”
Reply from thief: “I am totally stranded now and I cannot even take a call as I lost my phones to the incident.I need a quick loan.Can you do that? Thanks for writing back”
No luck. So, with no other positive avenues available, we just decided to vent:
“Let’s go after the best, the kindest, the most generous person we can find and then make her life miserable.”
Edna has lived her whole life trying to help others. She has given away more money than you can ever hope to steal. Now, you take advantage of the love and admiration that so many people have for her. You are simply evil.
The thief responded: “I am sorry plz. Never meant harm just trying to make a living off the streets.I am a footballer and if really you are kind you would forgive me and help.”
Why in all the world should our thief imagine that we might think less horribly of him knowing that he plays soccer??
Next day. Edna has been unable to restore her messages and contact list. The thief claims to have copies of these and offers to make them available for the price of £1000. This is a non-starter, as we know this footballer to be a shameless liar and a thief. It is impossible to trust him – even if Edna were willing to pay the ransom. Yesterday, he wanted charity. Today, he wants trust. Clearly, this one is not well-grounded in reality.
Yahoo is useless. They didn’t close the thief’s fake email account. They never restored Edna’s archived emails or her Contacts List. Utterly useless.
What’s more, Edna came to find out that the thief had changed a setting so that he continued to receive copies of all of her outgoing emails! If you (or someone you know) is the victim of a similar attack then be advised that you should find that setting and make certain your thief does not retain access to your private emails even after you change your password.
One might imagine that Yahoo would be of some slight degree of help (as they promise) but it turns out they are of absolutely no help whatsoever.
