Community Corner
Scam Alert: Your Friend Was Not Mugged in Spain
An email is circulating claiming the sender is traveling in a foreign country and has been mugged.
It's back!
An email scam is circulating the Internet that claims the sender is traveling abroad and has been mugged. It then requests funds.
Have you received an email like this one? What did you do?
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Recently it was a Gwinnett County Imam's email account that was hacked. The opening line of the email reads, "Assalamu Aalaykum," a common greeting among Muslims. The rest of the email reads, in part:
"I'm writing this in tears, I came traveled to Spain for an urgent program, but unfortunately I got mugged at the park of the hotel where I stayed - all cash and cell were stolen off me but luckily for me I still have my passport.
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"I've been to the embassy and the Police here but they're slow in helping issues. My return flight leaves in 3 hours but hotel manager won't let me leave until I settle the bills.I Need your help with a loan to pay the hotel bills and I'll surely pay back when I get back home."
A similar scam circulated in years past. According to a 2011 report in The Guardian, the emails could be a result of the 2010 Gawker hack.
In January of this year, Arizona House Rep. Cecil Ash was targeted by the same scam. Experts called it a common money-wiring scam.
If you have been the victim of this or similar scams, change your password and alert your contacts. A strong password typically includes uppercase and lowercase letters, at least one number and a symbol.
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