Dr. Bear is not in trouble in London

Discussion in 'Off-Topic Discussions' started by Denver, May 17, 2010.

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  1. Denver

    Denver Member

    If you receive an email claiming that Dr. Bear was robbed at gunpoint, or he needs for you to wire money - it is a scam.
     
  2. b4cz28

    b4cz28 Active Member

    Is this a Joke? Or is some one really using his fame to make some money?
     
  3. Denver

    Denver Member

    Here is the email, there are a lot of variations of it out there:

    "....I'm writing this with tears in my eyes, I'm sorry for this odd request because it might get to you too urgent but it's because of the situation of things right now, I'm stuck in London United Kingdom right now, i came down here on vacation, i was robbed, worse of it was that bags, cash, cards and my cell phone were stolen off me at GUN POINT, so i only have access to my emails, it was such a crazy and brutal experience for me and i was hurt on my right hand, but i'm glad i still have my life. I need help flying back home, the authorities are not being 100% supportive, i have been to the embassy and the Police here in London, but they're not helping issues at all, but the good thing is that i still have my passport but don't have enough money to sort the bills and get my flight ticket back home, please i need you to loan me some money, i promise to refund it as soon as I'm back home, you can get it to me through western union.

    John "
     
  4. Anthony Pina

    Anthony Pina Active Member

    The ungrammatical writing style alone is enough to make it clear that it was not written by John Bear. Any guesses as to who would want to circulate something like this?
     
  5. John Bear

    John Bear Senior Member

    The letter was sent to all the email addresses in my address book, from a Nigerian IP address.

    So much for Macintosh security, eh?
     
  6. CalDog

    CalDog New Member

    As a Mac user, do you by any chance have a "MobileMe" account?

    If so, then your email addressl list was probably discovered by cracking your MobileMe password, rather than through any vulnerability on the Mac itself.

    Any cloud-based services (Gmail, Hotmail, etc) is vulnerable if your password can be guessed.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: May 17, 2010
  7. Bill Huffman

    Bill Huffman Well-Known Member

    Someone one last week here at work had the same thing happen to their personal hotmail account. It's unknown whether the perpetrators hacked into the hotmail server or hacked into only her account. Her password was just a single six letter word which is a weak password.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: May 18, 2010
  8. Maniac Craniac

    Maniac Craniac Moderator Staff Member

    Personally, I was convinced of its fraudulence by the post just under yours :D
     
  9. John Bear

    John Bear Senior Member

    Yes, it is a Mobile Me account. Good information. Thanks.
    Here's some relevant text from the American Embassy website in London:
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    SPECIAL CONSULAR SERVICES

    Common Internet Financial Scams

    We hear about thousands of Internet scams at the U.S. Embassy in London every year. Some common signs of an Internet financial scam:

    Some common scenarios include:
    Hacked emails: The scammers hack into email addresses and social networking sites, then contact everyone listed in the victim’s contacts, address book, etc., asking for money. For more information, see the Department of State’s travel information website (PDF).

    Examples of the phrasing, poor spelling, grammar, and punctuation used in these messages include:

    I'm writing this with tears in my eyes,I came down here to London,England for a short vacation and i was mugged at gun point last night at the park of the hotel where i lodged all cash,credit cards and cell were stolen off me.

    I'm sorry for this odd request because it might get to you too urgent but it's because of the situation of things right now, I'm stuck in London, United Kingdom right now, i came down here on vacation , i was robbed, worse of it is that bags, cash and cards and my cell phone were stolen at GUN POINT, so i only have access to my email, i need help flying back home, the authorities are not being 100% supportive but the good thing is i still have my passport but don't have enough money to sort the bills and get my flight ticket back home, please i need you to loan me some money, i promise to refund it as soon as I'm back home, you can get it to me through western union.
     
  10. cookderosa

    cookderosa Resident Chef

    >>

    OMG I got this email tonight!!!! Right away I thought it was a scam, so I deleted it....but then I started to wonder?!?! I'm so glad you posted this, I was very worried about him!
     
  11. Randell1234

    Randell1234 Moderator


    How do we even know it is John on this board?? Maybe the same guy that robbed him in London has his DegreeInfo password :eek:
     
  12. dcb1888

    dcb1888 New Member

    I got the very same email a couple of weeks ago. Same content minus any names mentioned
     
  13. Bruce

    Bruce Moderator

    Damn.....$500 down the drain.
     
  14. dcb1888

    dcb1888 New Member

    I sent a thousand. How do you think I feel ?
     
  15. John Bear

    John Bear Senior Member

    Hey, thanks Bruce and dcb. Bought myself a ticket, with enough left over for 26 portions of bubble and squeak here at Heathrow.

    (Incidentally, here's a long CNN story on this particular scam:
    The 'With tears in my eyes' e-mail - CNN.com)
     
  16. Chip

    Chip Administrator

    no Nigerian ear-pickers to complement your stash of Ethiopian ones? :)
     
  17. StevenKing

    StevenKing Active Member

    This happened to me with my Gmail email, as well. I was tipped off when a local medical office (to whom I had applied as a nurse) called to ask me if I had been harmed. Then they informed me of the email indicating the same scenario.

    These hackers were good...they had re-routed the "change your password" capability in Gmail to send any attempts at restoration to a mobile phone in the UK. It took a little while to correct...but it finally smoothed out.

    -Steve King
     
  18. dcb1888

    dcb1888 New Member

    As legitimate as the email looks on its face, I was suspicious that writer was talking about the authorities not being cooperative and not helping with the issues etc, that was one part that stood out as being phony. These folks will stop at nothing, evidently.
     
  19. Maniac Craniac

    Maniac Craniac Moderator Staff Member

    I am suddenly reminded of some strange emails that I received from friends in the past; some obvious spam, but nothing as serious as this. Now that it all makes sense, I have relayed this information to them and have urged them to at the very least change their passwords.
     
  20. John Bear

    John Bear Senior Member

    And digital copiers may be even scarier

    A friend just sent me this report from CBS news on digital copiers, which have a big hard drive, that stores tens of thousands of documents that were copied on the machine. CBS bought four used copiers, and found huge numbers of police files, insurance files, company employee files with social security numbers, and so on. They report a survey by Sharp (which offers a $500 add-on that erases copies, but few buy it) saying 60% of people don't know about this phenomenon. I am (was) one of those.

    --John

    The story: Copy machines, a security risk? [VIDEO]
     

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