Posted by C. Rivera Chicago Notary Services on 4/7/11 8:45am
Msg #379019
I believe this is spam, and am sure Joan will respond...
Got this in an email today...
Thursday, April 7, 2011 6:18 AM
<<From: This sender is DomainKeys verified"Joan Bergstrom" <[e-mail address]>Add sender to Contacts
To: "Joan Bergstrom" <[e-mail address]>
hope you receive this message on time? Sorry I didn't inform you about my trip to Spain for a program, I am presently in Valencia, something extremely dreadful happened to me,I was robbed at gun point on my way to the Hotel by hooligans and they made away with my Bag and other valuables. I called my bank for a wire transfer but it has proven almost Impossible to operate my account from here as they made me understand international transactions take 7 working days to be effective which i can't wait.
I feel so devastated,now my passport and other belongings are been retained by the hotel management pending the time I pay my Hotel bills.This is shameful,I need you to help me with a loan of 2600 Euros to pay my hotel bills and get my self home.I will reimburse you soon as I get back Home.I will appreciate whatever you can assist me with.western union is the best way send me money, Let me know if you can be of help.
All hopes on you.
Warm regards.>>
Joan you out there???
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Reply by Sylvia_FL on 4/7/11 8:47am
Msg #379020
I got it too - Joan's e-mail is obviously hacked n/m
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Reply by Shoshana/AZ on 4/7/11 8:56am
Msg #379022
This is a very well known scam.
I have seen lots of warnings on it.
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Reply by Rani Sampson on 4/7/11 5:07pm
Msg #379082
Re: same scam this AM
I knew it was an email hijacking, but it was SPOOKY to see my friend's personalized signature at the bottom of the message.
How long does it take you to recognize the person who wrote this morning's scam email is not a native English speaker and is probably using an internet translator to ask for your money? Scam email message follows:
- - - - - - -
Hello ,
How are you doing hope you are keeping fine. Am sorry I didn't inform you on time about my trip to England.. I'm here with my I'll Cousin that She's suffering from a critical uterine fibroid and must undergo a hysterectomy surgery to save her life .I am deeply sorry for not writing or calling you before leaving, The news of her illness arrived to me as an emergency and that she needs family support to keep her going, I hope you understand my plight and pardon me. It as been a very sad and bad moment for me Right now because I got robbed on my way ,My Credit card, cash and other valuables things I have with me got stolen,
Hysterectomy surgery is very expensive here, So I want to transfer her back home to have the surgery implemented there where my health insurance can cover the cost. Am wondering if you can be of any assistance to me, Please I need you to help me with a soft loan of $2000 to make the necessary arrangement cos i traveled with little money due to the short time I had to prepare for this trip and never expected things to be the way it is right now. I'll surely pay you back once I get back home as soon as possible.I need to get her home ASAP because she is going through a lot of pain at the moment and the doctor have advised that it is necessary that the tumor is operated soon to avoid anything from going wrong. I did not take along my phone. So it is currently switched off as I was unable to roam it with the phone company because of the time frame I had to be here..
Please i will be waiting to hear back from you soon so that i can email you the details information where the money will be sending to
<<personalized sig file here - which means the scammers figured out my friend's password!>>
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Reply by James Dawson on 4/7/11 9:22am
Msg #379025
She just posted yesterday around noon I DOUBT
you can run up a hotel bill THAT big in one day,....anybody call her?
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Reply by Sylvia_FL on 4/7/11 9:40am
Msg #379028
Re: She just posted yesterday around noon I DOUBT
I called her and she is aware of the problem. She said it started around 4 this morning.
She is on the road now but when she gets home this evening she is going to look into it.
2600 Euros is around $3700. Enough for a hotel bill and to get her home, supposedly if she was really in Valencia.
I did ask her why she was on the road and not relaxing on the beach at Costa Blanca 
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Reply by 101livescan on 4/7/11 12:47pm
Msg #379059
Re: She just posted yesterday around noon I DOUBT
Bonbons, the spa facilities and a day at the golf course...way to go, Joan!
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Reply by Les_CO on 4/7/11 9:41am
Msg #379029
I guess these con artists will never learn?
Western Union IS a wire transfer of funds.
A bank can do a wire transfer in one day.
Almost all credit card companies can issue you a new card with new number in person, immediately.
We have US Embassies and Consulates that help with these situations every day.
As James says, that must be a NICE hotel!
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Reply by Sylvia_FL on 4/7/11 10:23am
Msg #379032
Must be a really nice hotel. You can get a nice deluxe room for around €260 a night in a top class hotel.
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Reply by kathy/ca on 4/7/11 10:25am
Msg #379033
Does this mean WE are hacked in too? I also got it! n/m
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Reply by MikeC/NY on 4/7/11 10:48am
Msg #379041
No - Joan's account was compromised, not yours
It (probably a piece of malware) is sending the same message to everyone in HER address book. As long as there's no link to click in the message or attachment to open, you should be fine.
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Reply by HisHughness on 4/7/11 10:30am
Msg #379036
When all of my friends got that email...
...they wanted to know how much it would cost to keep me from ever coming back.
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Reply by Susan Fischer on 4/7/11 10:38am
Msg #379038
I get a slew of spam "from" an old friend in Idaho who
hasn't emailed me in a few years. In one of our phone conversations, I brought it up, and asked her to stop forwarding me stupid emails - and that's when we discovered the hijack.
Looks like old lists are being used, doesn't it?
Grrrr.
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Reply by MW/VA on 4/7/11 10:43am
Msg #379039
I don't know if this works or if it's true, but someone sent
me an email this morning that had the following suggestion to protect your email contact list from being used for this kind of thing. It says to put A, then [e-mail address] as your first contact. The claim is that is an address that will be kicked back, and will stop the attempt. Anyone ever heard of this?
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Reply by Sylvia_FL on 4/7/11 10:47am
Msg #379040
Re: I don't know if this works or if it's true, but someone sent
No that won't work:
http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/quickfix.asp
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Reply by MW/VA on 4/7/11 11:13am
Msg #379044
Thanks, Sylvia. I tried to check it out on Snopes
but didn't find it.
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Reply by Susan Fischer on 4/7/11 11:05am
Msg #379042
Yes, that rings an old bell from some time ago. Don't
know if it works.
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Reply by BobbiCT on 4/7/11 11:33am
Msg #379047
Jail, money & passport confiscated, W-e-l-l ...
Don't ever count on me to bail you out.
I've been getting those types of e-mails for many years from family and friends.
1. If you're in jail, call a lawyer.
2. If you need to post bond to get out of jail, call a bail bonds person.
4. If you can afford international travel, I'm so jealous don't count on me to send you money.
5. If you want to smuggle cash out of a foreign country to the U.S., put the cash in a FedEx box, ship it to me and, after I run the cash through a U.S. bank and it clears as "good" currency, I'll mail you back a receipt. You can look me up when you arrive in the U.S.
6. Feel free to mail me half the cash from my Irish and Canadian lottery winnings; I've lost all my tickets.
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Reply by 101livescan on 4/7/11 12:46pm
Msg #379058
Re: Jail, money & passport confiscated, W-e-l-l ...
Vey funny, Bobbi. I've had two people call me from jail whom I notarized documents for, to help them post bail. I mean, I'm nice, but not that nice. You got yourself in jail, sorry, Charlie, I just look rich, I'm not really rich or quite that foolish.
I left Joan a voice mail and sent her a text message. She's teaching a notary class today, so maybe she'll respond during her lunch break, but maybe not until later today when the proctors show up to give the exam.
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Reply by ME/NJ on 4/7/11 11:45am
Msg #379048
Happened a year or so ago
Got calls from clients and notaries wondering if I was ok. Took 2 days to get back into my ocean Notary email.
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Reply by 101livescan on 4/7/11 12:20pm
Msg #379050
Joan has many friends and family, and this would certainly not have come from Joan if such a horrible event occurred, so yes, this is hacker. Scary stuff, huh? I've been getting things from a psuedo CRAIGSLIST.ORG hacker trying to get me to log in to confirm POST/EDIT/DELETE ads for cars for sale. I'm sending them to craigslist.org for their fraud team to examine.
I called Joan anyway so that she can get busy and put another screen of security level on her PC.
Have an awesome day!
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Reply by Joan Bergstrom on 4/7/11 8:38pm
Msg #379098
What a mess!
I discovered it when I was leaving my home to teach a notary class in Anaheim. My friend called me and told me.
I am very sorry you all had to go through this and I am also feeling pretty sorry for myself.
I am in contact with Yahoo and hope to get this straightened out as quick as possible.
How would someone actually make this payment to this scam? Some people faxed me over the actual email and the scam artists changed my phone number on the email but didn't change my fax number.
Thanks to all that responded and I hope to get this resolved quickly.
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Reply by Joan Bergstrom on 4/7/11 8:46pm
Msg #379099
Thanks to Sylvia & Cheryl for calling me
I had a bunch of calls from Title Companies, loan signing companies/etc.
My phone messages filled up and I couldn't answer my phone at class.
So thank you to anyone who tried to call and couldn't get through.
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Reply by Joan Bergstrom on 4/8/11 12:38am
Msg #379110
I think I know where this type of scam is directed
I had 3 of my friends ( 2 are over 80 yrs & another friend who doesn't use the Internet/computer very much) were actually going to send me some money at that Spain address.
They didn't have enough money to send the 2,600 Euros but they were going to send around $500 to me.
Since I couldn't answer my cell today, one of my closest friends was called all day, and thank goodness, answered the calls about me and told them it was a scam.
The only reason the 3 friends, called my friend is; the email request didn't sound like me and they couldn't get me on my cell.
This scam is really scary, in my opinion, because there isn't anyone at a business or notrot who would send money, but certainly someone who is elderly or not computer savy could be scammed.
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Reply by Sylvia_FL on 4/8/11 10:43am
Msg #379148
Re: I think I know where this type of scam is directed
There was no address to send the money too.
But, you noticed your cell phone number has been changed in that e-mail.
Wonder if you took it to the police they could call that number and pretend they were friends who wanted to help you and ask where to send the money to. That may help to track down who is behind the scam?
I heard of one a few months ago where it was similar but someone would call an elderly person and pretend to be a grandchild who needed money urgently.
I know if any of my grandchildren called I would be asking why they didn't ask their parents for help first
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Reply by topflyt on 4/7/11 2:17pm
Msg #379069
Where can I send my hard earned money??? It just has to be true...this poor person! lol
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Reply by JanetK_CA on 4/7/11 2:46pm
Msg #379073
I've received same email from another friend - months ago...
Only I think it said she was in London. This is definitely a scam - and it's a Yahoo thing. (My friend also had a Yahoo account and I've heard they had other issues a while back.) I almost fell for it last time, because this one is much better written than the usual suspects and sounds potentially plausible. (My friend was planning a trip to Europe. Makes me wonder if there's more to this than the Yahoo connection with how they pick their victims...)
I'm sure Joan will get this cleared up and I'm also sure she doesn't need us to send "her" any money to Valencia - although a personal delivery there might be fun! 
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Reply by Bob_Chicago on 4/7/11 4:01pm
Msg #379075
Ghost e-mails. A few months ago I received an e-mail
on my Blackberry stating that the "Smith " closing was changing from Tuesday to
Wednesday, and was that ok? Paniced for a minute because I did not have any such closing scheduled at all.
Looked at it more carefully, and noticed that it was dated February 15, 2006.
Since then, I receive the same e-mail at odd times every few days. Email does not appear on
my regular email, but only on my Blackberry. I did not buy my first Blackberry until a few years after 2006. To make matters worse, it is from a company that no longer exists, but used to give me a whole lot of work at $200+ per order.
In the words of the late, great Red Buttons, "Strange things are happening"
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Reply by LKT/CA on 4/7/11 7:07pm
Msg #379090
I received that scam email "allegedly" from Joan. A while ago, I received two similar emails from friends, also bogus sob stories about being stranded overseas, with no ID, and asking for money to be Western Unioned.
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Reply by James Dawson on 4/8/11 9:08am
Msg #379132
Just last week a poster on this site
send me an email they received asking for money to be sent to someone acting on my behalf. They sent the email to me and we laughed about it it...THANK God NR'ers aren't stupid!
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Reply by Joan Bergstrom on 4/9/11 12:24am
Msg #379272
I think this a yahoo problem
I got the email account updated today with additional security controls.
I would change my email address but all my advertising has this yahoo address for the last 8 years and I think it would cause me a loss of income.
Thanks again to all that responded
I better not have this issue again or I will really"drink the kool aid."
Cheers!
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