I made an incredibly stupid mistake today, I responded to an e-mail that I thought was from Yahoo's Customer Support Center, only to find out that it was a phishing e-mail that captured my log-in information. They attacked my e-mail account and sent out the following message to all of my contacts:
From: Nancy Matthews
Sent: Thu, February 25, 2010 12:21:29 PM
Subject: Very urgent please
Hello, Sorry for not telling you about my emergency trip to London. Here is what happened to me, i am stranded and without a phone at the moment. I was defrauded of all my personal belonging and also robbed by the same gang of fraudsters here.Am at the airport right now mailing from an internet center with the only money i have left and i only have 30 minutes. At the moment i need $1970 to cover some expenses and to get back my passport from the hotel i booked,i have to pay move out and the manager has my passport because i told him to give me some time to arrange some money so i can clear my bills to enable me return home. Please, can you loan me this money and I will pay back immediately I return home if you can, please let me know. Hoping for your positive response.Best regards,
Nancy A. Matthews, MSEd
Author of: A Journey Toward Spiritual Peace
&
An Insider's Guide to Managing Your Chronic or Terminal Illness
Website: http://www.nancyamatthews.com/
Blog: http://www.nancymatthews.blogspot.com/
http://www.cookingforfunwithnancy.com/
As you can imagine, my phone started ringing off the hook with people worried about me and letting me know about this scam. I couldn't get into my e-mail account, so I started praying. I had to cancel all of my on-line accounts, change passwords, create a new e-mail, etc. But I just kept praying for God to send me a way to stop this.
When Hannah came home from school, she had the spam message on her computer, so I took a chance and responded to it. Here is what I wrote:
From: Hannah Matthews
Subject: Re: Very urgent please
To: "Nancy Matthews" nancymatthews74@yahoo.com
Date: Thursday, February 25, 2010, 3:55 PM
Hello,
This is the REAL Nancy Matthews. I am writing to ask you to please stop using my account to harass my friends. You have no idea the amount of distress you have caused me today.
I am not sure why you have chosen to do this, but I am praying for you. I forgive you for using me this way, please look to the Lord for guidance in how to proceed. May you realize the evil that is causing you to do this and ask God for forgiveness.
With prayers and forgiveness, Nancy
Surprisingly, I received 2 responses, the first was:
SORRY!
The second was:
Subject: God is able
From: Nancy Matthews To: Hannah Matthews
Baby,i really felt so bad the way i read your mail. You have acess to your email now. Thanks and try to log in with your real pass/
One love keep us togerther
Quite bizarre, but when I tried to get into my e-mail, I was able. Perhaps God touched their hearts, I can only hope.
I have changed my e-mail address and can now be reached at nancymatthews74@aol.com .
Please pray that my scammers did learn a lesson and will think twice before they do this to anyone again!
All my love! Nancy
2 comments:
I am really surprised they responded. I am glad it is all worked out :)
You were much nicer than most of would have been. Sorry this happened to you. Hang in there...
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