A friend of mine's account has been hacked, and the scammer wants to have money sent 'to Buckinghamshire, England.' How do I proceed? Alert Western Union that this is a theft?
This very type of thing happened to members of a professional association I belonged to. Someone actually hacked into the association's website, chose a member and posted a call-for-help in their name that they were in England on a business trip and had been robbed and please, couldn't the other members forward her some cash to get by on so she could leave the country.
Some of the members almost fell for it until another member recognized the scam and posted that he'd talked with the supposed UK-stranded victim in Dallas, Tx that very morning! Oh and yeah, the scammers wanted the money sent to .... yes, England, perhaps even Buckinghamshire, I don't now recall where exactly.
From what I understand, Western Union isn't particularly proactive in any fraud reporting, which is probably why they get used by scammers so much. Definitely contact gmail. Does your friend know about this yet?
1. File a police report with your local police department. (They will be mystified and not at all helpful, but it's the correct first contact to establish an official chain of evidence.) Insist on having a case opened (they will want to avoid this as it's a bunch of paperwork for the responding officer, and they won't see the point as they are well aware there's basically nil chance of anything real coming of it.)
2. Make printed copies of the emails or other contacts, including full email headers for any contact via gmail. Ideally "print to PDF" from Firefox, keep both a PDF and a hard copy.
3. Forward this case number to local police in the destination city, including any contact information for your local police.
4. Contact your local FBI office and provide copies of all the evidence.
This probably won't come to anything, but there's an outside chance. The scammers are almost certainly running hundreds or thousands of these, and the person in Buckinghamshire is probably a money mule who doesn't actually know anything.
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http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100211102846AArVGxs
Most fraudsters want money sent via Western Union. Unless you can contact your friend directly (phone), do not send!
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My question is, can we do anything toward apprehending him/her.
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EDIT: evidently also his facebook account.
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Some of the members almost fell for it until another member recognized the scam and posted that he'd talked with the supposed UK-stranded victim in Dallas, Tx that very morning! Oh and yeah, the scammers wanted the money sent to .... yes, England, perhaps even Buckinghamshire, I don't now recall where exactly.
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2. Make printed copies of the emails or other contacts, including full email headers for any contact via gmail. Ideally "print to PDF" from Firefox, keep both a PDF and a hard copy.
3. Forward this case number to local police in the destination city, including any contact information for your local police.
4. Contact your local FBI office and provide copies of all the evidence.
This probably won't come to anything, but there's an outside chance. The scammers are almost certainly running hundreds or thousands of these, and the person in Buckinghamshire is probably a money mule who doesn't actually know anything.
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