Jobs & Education1 min ago
Suspect Email
22 Answers
I have received an email purporting to come from a grandson who we are not in contact with and haven't been for a good many years. It was along the lines of we are stranded in Kiev please help. I know that these emails are spam but what worries me is there no reference to this grandson anywhere in my computer 'history'. Also he would have no idea of my email address. It is a bit worrying - has anyone any ideas as to how this could happen and should I change my password
Thank you for any help and suggestions
Thank you for any help and suggestions
Answers
Best Answer
No best answer has yet been selected by granny grump. Once a best answer has been selected, it will be shown here.
For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.You'd be surprised how devious these spammers are, granny - you might not have his details, but it's HIS email account which has been spammed, and obviously your email details are still in his on-line address book. He must have had it somewhere, buried in a cc'd email or somewhere.
Mark the email as spam and delete it - there shouldn't be any need to change your password, IMO - I get these "stranded in a strange place" emails quite often, from people I've never even heard of.
Mark the email as spam and delete it - there shouldn't be any need to change your password, IMO - I get these "stranded in a strange place" emails quite often, from people I've never even heard of.
I think your grandson's account has been hacked and a similar message would have been sent to all his contacts. Just ignore it.
I had an e-mail like that from someone who was supposed to have lost all their luggage and documents at an airport. I'd seen the same person in the corner shop just an hour or so before I opened my e-mails.
I had an e-mail like that from someone who was supposed to have lost all their luggage and documents at an airport. I'd seen the same person in the corner shop just an hour or so before I opened my e-mails.
Email addresses are 'harvested' from all over the world by hackers, either by hacking into other peoples computers or company computers, or bought from dodgy websites. These are then 'sold' on to other scammers for mass emailing. Your computer history is beside the point. They have also had a 'guess' you have a grandson (most people do).
Just as an example, I have 3 email addresses. Two of these email addresses are rarely used and only known to people I trust absolutely and I am sure they are computer savvy as well. The other one is my general email address and used for log-ins and websites.
When I pick up my emails, I only ever get spam and junk mail from my general address.
Just as an example, I have 3 email addresses. Two of these email addresses are rarely used and only known to people I trust absolutely and I am sure they are computer savvy as well. The other one is my general email address and used for log-ins and websites.
When I pick up my emails, I only ever get spam and junk mail from my general address.
The one I had supposedly from a friend who was on holiday and had been mugged wanted money sent by Western Union to pay his hotel bill. It said that he was writing the email with tears in his eyes. A person less likely to send an email to a friend asking for money with "tears in his eyes" made me realise it was an elaborate scam.
It's a Scam which has been going for a number of years. :-
http:// www.hoa x-slaye r.com/s tranded -scam.s html
Hans.
http://
Hans.