---------------------------
I was looking at my e-mail inbox with sleepy eyes one morning when I was jolted into attention by a message from my younger brother with the subject noted as 'Emergency'.
With trembling hands I clicked on the message to read that he had gone to Nigeria for a conference and had lost his passport, tickets and money. He was in deep distress and would like me to send him some money urgently through a Nigerian friend. He had signed with his old designation in Bangkok rather than his new one at his present post.
The words, 'Nigeria' and 'Bangkok' put me at ease, but I called him to ensure that he was sleeping at home. He was not sleeping as my son had already woken him up to alert him to the scam and he was busy answering calls and e-mails, assuring friends and relatives that he was in distress only because of the scam.
Nigerian scams are known to e-mail users around the globe, but this one was new because the message had come from my brother's e-mail account. Apparently, he had received a message, seemingly from the Hotmail team, asking him to confirm that he wanted to continue to operate his account, which was otherwise lapsing.
No comments:
Post a Comment