Graham Cluley reported a devasting story about 67-year-old Al Circelli who committed suicide after losing $50,000 to West African romance scammers. Let this be a wake-up call to anyone who has gullible family members. Make certain that they understand about phishing scams. Natural disasters, elections, tax time, holidays all result in a spew of new scams. Be sure to educate your family."Circelli's son Peter says he stumbled across evidence that his late father had wired considerable amounts of money to Ghana, and discovered email messages and photos on his father's laptop supposedly from a woman called Aisha, who wanted to come to the USA to begin a new life and promised to bring a small fortune with her
According to media reports, "Aisha" needed money to be sent to her in Ghana via Western Union to pay for expenses - and when Circelli ran out of his own money, he took out credit cards in his son's name and stopped making mortgage payments.
Peter Circelli says that his father commited suicide on the day that "Aisha" was due to arrive in the USA but, of course, she never showed up. Bizarrely, an email message has been found on the dead man's laptop from a Ghanaian intermediary in the money transactions claiming that "Aisha" had also killed herself."
In addition to the references below, additional tips and information on phishing are available in these Security Garden posts.
References:
- Graham Cluley: Romance email scam drives father to suicide
- Microsoft Security: Avoid E-mail Hoaxes and Email Scams
- US-CERT Cyber Security Tip: Avoiding Social Engineering and Phishing Attacks
, Phishing, Fraud
Remember - "A day without laughter is a day wasted."
May the wind sing to you and the sun rise in your heart...
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