December 2007

NEW SCAM – the pretender

A well known artist from Newfoundland had his gmail (google) account hacked into and used to send a series of fraudulent letters to the artist's friends and associates. The letters asked for a loan to help the artist's father with emergency medical expenses.

The most alarming aspect of this SCAM was that the scammer pretended to be the artist. Initially the scammer posed as a member of the Google trouble team and told the artist their account would be closed unless they sent in their password. Once the scammer had the artist's password they used information from the artist's website, including his CV and his contact information, to construct a letter which appeared to have been written by the artist himself. The letter even included a link to the artist's real website.

When the scam was detected the artist contacted Google in order to shut down the gmail account. A notice was posted on the artist's website to alert people of the scam.

fraudulent letter follows:

**I NEED URGENT ASSISTANCE ***

Hi there,
i just travelled to denmark early this morning for a New
year programme that will last for about 2 weeks.

Lately,i recieved a call from my younger sister that my dad has been taken a hospital in uk(yorkshire)to be precise for a kidney transplant.Though i knew that he had the kidney problem before,i never knew it will result to this kind of problem now.

Right now,since i am an art teacher,i dont have much cash on me to send my younger sister so i ask if you could help me send her about $1580.00 then i will pay you back as soon as i come back home.

I know this is a very shy thing to do but i really need this help from you becasue i have no other choice and i am helpless here.Moreso the doctor is asking for a deposit into the hospitals account before treatment and the operation will commence.And you know things like this needs fast and urgent attendance.

COULD YOU BE OF HELP TO ME PLEASE?I will gladly wait for your reply.

(name of artist)

website www.nameofartist