I got an email from someone I know, asking for money to be sent because she was robbed and stranded in London. She asked for $3800 for help getting home and for hotel bills. When I replied, asking her to call me, she replied saying she can't call and to please send money to Western Union, under her name, in London. I replied that I never loan money and have not heard from her again. In my email I said that she must have a return ticket and that her credit card company can give her an advance.

I came back from Fifa World Cup in South Africa on 8th July 2010. A few days ago, three of my friends became victims of an email scam, which used my email address asking for money from London. The culprits hacked into my yahoo account and send emails to everyone in my address book. He claimed that he was me and that i had been robbed in London. He communicated in a few emails with his victims who responded to his scam. The victims transferred money by sending the fund transfer codes enabling the crook to withdraw money via Western Union believing it was me asking for help. I now know that Western Union do not ask for identification upon payment. Correct me if am wrong. The money pressed for by the culprit was about British Pound 2000. As far as Yahoo was concerned, it did inform me that it had blocked my account for 24 hrs. Whatever Yahoo constraints might be, it never proposed that i take certain immediate action/s to prevent this scam from happening. In fact, by blocking my account for more than 24 hours overall did more harm than good. it prevented me from sending a clear warning advice to all my friends not knowing what are the best options opened to me faced with this . Beside, not having an access to my yahoo address directory and not knowing what to respond became our greatest misfortune. Im sure Yahoo might have different opinion about all this.

kaka

26th July 2010.