I received a Nigerian scam* text message* the other day - I thought part of the pleasure of the scam was the long drawn-out story of woe. Hard to achieve the same effect in 140 characters.
Interestingly there was no phone number attached to the message, only the name “World Bank”. I wonder how they did that.
OK, when I got home last night I checked and my friend’s Facebook page had been removed entirely. I found her on LinkedIn and sent her a message, but she hasn’t replied. I called her office, but she isn’t there. I don’t know the names of any of her family members, and she is in another state. She doesn’t seem to have a land line. This is freaking weird. Am I paranoid, or is she in trouble?
If the person who stole her email password attempted to used the same password on her Facebook account and it didn’t match, Facebook might lock down the account especially if this is attempted from a site far from where she usually posts. I had someone try to hack my Facebook account a couple days ago, and because they made two attempts and were in New Jersey(I live in Portland, Oregon) they locked off my page until I could confirm who I was. If you can contact her, tell her she can straighten it out by emailing them at support@facebook.com.
So, re: the OP, was anyone else thinking, “No, no, your uncle didn’t try to poison you, he sent you on a voyage with the nefarious Rosenkermit and Guildenfozzy . . . and possibly some hyenas.”
Heh. No, a mutual friend had her work e-mail, where I was able to contact her last night. Her Hotmail account had indeed been hacked, and it has been a nightmare for her. She has a new address and all is well, except for the aggravation.
if you want to stop these, why not try the other perennial favorites? Tell people that any request for money from someone is actually a VIRUS. And that if they forward your message to 50 people, they’ll get money from Bill Gates or the Goverrnment (whichever they’d prefer).