On Tuesday evening, Vinton Today was one of many who received an email claiming to be from a Vinton woman.
The email subject line was "Am in a mess PLS Help Me."
It had this message:
"How are you doing? I am trapped in a mess and I need your help. Sorry, I will tell you about trip, I had a trip to the Africa for a Conference Meeting (Nigeria), and astrange thing happened to me.I was assaulted at gunpoint last night, it happened in the park of the hotel I stayed but thank God I was not hurt, Thieves took off with all my belongings excluded my passport. Cell, c-card, cash and some important documents are gone. I had the opportunity to make contact with the police in Nigeriaand was addressed to the Embassy, but that seems to be taking things too slow. I need your help urgently . My flight leaves soon, but am having trouble ordering the hotel bills and also need to get my ticket straightened. Need your help. I need a quick loan of $3000 to fix things here, I promise to refund as soon as I get back home .. Please reply as soon as possible. so I can tell you what to do and how to get the money for me .. I hope to read from you soon Yours sincerely ... and signed the Vinton woman's name."
This message is obviously a scam, but it differs from the other "Nigerian" scams in that it uses a real email address from someone the reader is likely to know.
The woman may have been tricked into giving her emial password to someone via the Internet.
We called the woman's family, who told us that the woman knew about the problem and was trying to fix it.
"No, she is not asking for $3,000," said a relative, with a laugh.
All Internet users are reminded to be very suspicious of any plea for help or money via e-mail, even if it comes from a familiar name or email address.
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