A friend received ab email from her brother a couple of days ago. The email stated that he was in hospital and undergoing therapy for cancer. It went on to say that he hadn't told anyone because he did not want anyone to know at this time so please keep it quite. It then stated that he desperately needed a sum of money and gave instructions on how to send it.

Naturally our friend was very upset and tried to phone her brother and started to get really worried when her brother did not answer the phone.

Finally her brother saw here missed calls and called her back. It turns out that her brother's email account had been hacked and that it was a complete fraud, The fraudster, having access to previous emails, was able to put together a convincing story which seemed to be real. Fortunately she did not send the requested money but the whole episode has really shaken her.

Needless to say they have both taken action to change passwords etc.

This may be may be an indication of a new type of fraud, so if you get an email like that be aware that it is most probably an attempt at fraud and don't panic. .

As they say: forewarned is forearmed.

Thanks for the heads up Peter.

This type of email fraud has been going on for several years.
The number I have received from friends "stuck" abroad / hospital &c. with insufficient funds over the last few years beggars belief.

I also think that fraud is becoming more and more personified. So is blackmail.
I got a mail a year ago that showed me an old of my passwords. Even if I had changed this password time ago, I was very shocked at first.

Then it was said that my camera was switched on when I had watched a porn video. And they would have recorded explicit actions from me. If I would not pay, all my email contacts would get an email with a video of my actions. Because that never happened I was confident and I didn't react to the blackmail. Even if I had done explicit action I would not pay. Later I googled this topic and the police was aware of this kind of blackmail and warned people to react in any way..
But how terrible if someone really used the iPad that way and he is very shocked at the first moment and some people do ill-considered actions and pay.

This is called spear phishing. Spend a little time crafting a specific attack to cause reaction they feel worried about and want to help.

You find out enough from a persons on-line sochul medier content to craft a panic. Your account has been hacked. The dog has been run over, pay the vet etc etc and uses a combination attack of SMS, email, soshul medier messages to cause a panic payment. By the time you look at the facts it is too late. The payment cannot be recovered by the bank.

Verify verify verify.

If there is not a fact you can say is cast iron then ask a question, have a safe word, test with a wrong answer and see if they respond. Have an agreement with your family that if the fuzz hits the fan they will put a well known name, word, place in the email to authenticate the issue. Not your first car, your pet, your place of birth. Too many people have answered those stupid quizzes on Farcebook and surrendered that information already.

Every time someone invents a new benefit a scumbag finds a new way to exploit it.

My friends and family know better than to ask me for money, shysters need not apply.

I have had a few of these over recent years and they are pretty specific but it's quite easy to check the authenticity, tbh it's a pretty naïve form of criminality. It's as well to be aware this type of thing is doing the rounds though.

In this case I believe the email was crafted with names and places. Though I have not seen it I believe it was sent using the brothers email account which means that the fraudster got the password to the account and was able to read previous emails to get the details. Fortunately our friend was able to contact her brother but until he finally returned her call she was very worried about him. Neither of them are young people.

If I can I will try to find out more tomorrow and, if the email has not been deleted, I will have a look at it too. I will also try to find out what action they have taken with their email accounts.

Had one last week informing they have all the evidence of me watching porn on the web and if i dont pay 800bt/c into an account they would send a mail to all my contacts informing them.....who gives a feck, all my contacts know i watch porn.
😅😆