And now it gets really weird. Last week, I got an e-mail from a different female friend with a remarkably similar message. She, too, had been robbed in England, and like friend No. 1, her hotelier also wouldn't let her check out without paying the bill.
Her e-mail (under a heading of "HELP!!!") said: "I'm writing this with tears in my eyes, my family and I came down here to North Wales, United Kingdom for a short vacation. Unfortunately, we were mugged at the park of the hotel where we stayed, all cash and credit card were stolen off us but luckily for us we still have our passports . . ."
"The hotel manager won't let us leave until we settle the bills. Well I really need your financially assistance. Please, let me know if you can help us out? Am freaked out at the moment!!"
Hey, Brits, it shouldn't take Sherlock Holmes to figure out you have a serial mugger on the loose.
I e-mailed my friend back and asked what I could do. She suggested I wire $1,250 to the Western Union office at Leicester Square.
Unfortunately, I'd never wired money before, and was unfamiliar with how to do so. Desperate to help, I sent another e-mail asking for more specific instruction.
The response: "Thanks for the quick response i will like you head down to the western union and get the money wired to me all you need is my name and present location in seeing the money so that i can pick up the money with my passport just log on to www.westernunion/locator . . . and go get the money wired to me course i have a limited time here, thanks a lot."
Brian Krebs, a cyber-crime
expert (KrebsOnSecurity.com), warned me that my friend might be a victim of identity theft. He said some scammers use software to steal passwords, then sell them on the black market. He told me about a New Yorker whose Hotmail account had been broken into by an extortionist who held the account ransom for $100.
