Any CREIA Members Here? - Jerry Carlisle

[Brian Hannigan]

Hey, has anyone else received this email below. It was sent bcc to an undisclosed group. It smells of "Scam" however I have just a bit of curiosity as to whether it is true or a great scam.

Jerry Carlisle is one of the CREIA members.

The reply email address (homeinspectjerry@aol.com) when searched does lead back to Jerry's site (http://www.propertyinspector.citymax.com/page/page/4065577.htm). I called both his numbers on his site and a different number from his CREIA listing and the recording says that he is away until May 3rd. Hmmm...

But in the email he does not mention his last name, company or real details.

The email is written like a scam.

here is the email:

******************

Subject: My Terrible Situation!!!

I'm writing this email with tears in my eye. I came to Laguna, Philippines for a conference. Unfortunately, I got stabbed by an assailant on my way to the hotel where I lodged, all cash, credit card and my cell phone were stolen from me. Luckily for me I still have my passports with me.

I sent an email to the embassy here but they are not responding to the matter effectively. I am stretched to the hilt and need to clear my bills with the hotel so that I can arrange a return flight back home tonight. I'd really appreciate it if you can help me from my difficult situation.

I am freaked out at the moment.

Jerry

**********************************

Very strange. I don't want to get sucked in but it there a possibility this is real?

[Brian Hannigan]

I did send a reply....


Hi Jerry,

This email sounds like a scam however in the off chance this is you and you do need help here is a suggestion.

Don't email the embassy, you need to call them.

They have a page dedicated to "Obtaining Funds in an Emergency"

Emergency Services | Embassy of the United States Manila, Philippines (http://manila.usembassy.gov/wwwha017.html)

In case of an Emergency outside business hours,
American citizens may reach the Embassy
Duty officer through the Embassy operator
at (63)(2) 301-2000 or 526-9819/526-9820.

I look forward to your safe return.

Brian Hannigan


******************

This is all very strange.

[H.G. Watson, Sr.]

Its most likely a scam.

The FBI investigates these all the time, usually sourced overseas.

"The FBI and its partners encourage the public to report any fraudulent activity to the Internet Crime Complaint Center, a joint project of the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center, at www.ic3.gov."

Common varieties include "relative in distress" scam, "grandma scam" collegue in distress scam, etc.

Extortion via data mining.

Likely there's a link to your website on his site, reference to criea.org, etc. and/or his computer is exposed/hacked, and scammer got the same voice mail info from phone number sources easily available on the www and is sending out emails.

L.A. FBI office put out announcements or bulletins on this that hit the news last December (week-10 days before xmas). Memphis last March. You'll easily find if you search "relative in distress scams" or something similar.

We seniors get it all the time from the telephone, bold ones knocking on the door flashing badges, emails, texts, etc.

J.C. uses a UPS store drop box for address, might even be a local scammer using info on holding mail drop mail, who knows.

Sadly a common scam/con/extortion. Don't lose any sleep over it.

Its generally a mistake to open or respond to emails - IIRC FBI has links on main page regarding recent maleware/virus/trojans, etc. still sneaking in from the scammer emails sourcing Left of the left coast DNS Changer...something. If NASA, Homeland Security, etc. offices email and servers could get hacked, I'm sure an AOL email account could have been too.

Ignore it or forward it to an investigative office in LA or Woodland Hills P.D. possible identity theft, etc. and do consider forwarding to the Internet Crime Complaint Center at Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) | Home (http://www.ic3.gov) .

HTH.

[Jack Feldmann]

I got the exact same e-mail from a friend's e-mail list. Since I know this friend well enough that she would have used my name in the text, I knew it was a scam. Turns out her e-mail and Twitter accounts were hijacked.

[Brian Hannigan]

Thanks for the update you two.

I must say, it is a good and well thought out scam however I'm not sure at what point they would be asking for money and where to send it.

All I sent was the contact infor for the embassy and never heard anything back.

[Rod Smith]

Hi all! I had a similar experience about two years ago. I got an email from a female friend, telling me that she was in London on vacation, and had her wallet stolen. She wanted to know if I could lend her $1300.00 until she got back home, as she had no other source or person she could call for help. Since I had just saw her a couple of hours ago, I thought about it for a couple of minutes, then walked across my back yard to her house. I told her that I was happy she had made it back to the States, and naturally, she thought I was losing it until I showed her the Email! Just shows you that you cannot believe messages like this one!:D

[Marc Morin]

Got the EXACT same email from a client just a few week ago. It was maybe 5-7 days after I emailed the report to them.

[Jim Luttrall]

When this happens, I try to contact the person and tell them to change their password, they have been hacked. Someone is using their email account for no good!

[Dana Bostick]

Pretty common scam. They hyjack your email account and set a "vacation auto-responder message" to send out a spam link.:eek: Happened to an old Hotmail account of mine a few years ago. They wiped my address book and set the "away" message to link to a crap Chinese merchant site.

I left the address book empty and changed my password again. Never a problem after that.