yesterday, my email was hijacked

By David Verveer

Yesterday, some friends with whom I had not talked with for a long time, phoned me up and all asked me a question as follows: "where are you at the moment?"
I told them, I am home, and then they asked me, if I am O.K., as they received an urgent plea from me As follows:

"I am sorry I didn't inform you about my traveling to Europe for a program called Empowering the youth to fight racism, HIV/AIDS and lack of education, the program is taking place in three major countries in Europe, which are England, Holland and Germany, I am presently in England.
I misplaced my wallet on my way to the hotel where my money and other valuable things were kept. I will like you to assist me with a soft loan urgently with a sum of (&2000) pound to sort-out my hotel bills and get myself back home. I will appreciate whatever you can afford, I will pay you back upon return, The money could be wired through Western Union money transfer with the information below..
Name: David Verveer
Address is: 30 Leicester Square
City: London
Country: United Kingdom
Zip Code: WC2H 7LA.
Text question: For who?
Answer: For Me
The amount you send?
As soon as you do it please email me back with the Western Union information, so that I can pay the bill's and get home.
Thanks for all the help
David Verveer"

First of all, I am not stuck in England; I did not participate and never will participate in such a program, and all above bullshit is a hoax, trying to find suckers who are prepared to donate money for the cause of funding crooks.

But now comes the question, how come and how did they do it?
First of all, because my utter stupidity, and my trusting official looking letters, which I never should have answered, but I did, and apologize for it, as I should have known better.

Yesterday, I received an official looking letter from dpberches@hotmail.com
With the subject: Hotmail Warning!!! Verify your account now to avoid it closed (VX2G99AAJ)

Verify your Hotmail account now!!!

Dear Account User.
You are advise to verify and confirm your account details below to enable us to upgrade your account, E.G. your hotmail I.D. Password, Date of Birth etc.

Anyone who fails to do his or her own will Automatically loses his or her own account
Thanks for using Hotmail

Dear Account User,
This message is from Hotmail message center to all Hotmail account owners and premium account owners. We are currently upgrading our data base and email account center. We are deleting all unused Hotmail account to create more space for new accounts.

To prevent your account from closing you will have to update it below before three days from now!
Hotmail I.D.
Password:
Your birthday
Your country or territory:
Your secret question answer:
Then follows another threat of closure,

Signed by: The Windows Live Hotmail Team.

On purpose I copiedt the text with grammar mistakes, which should have alerted me, but stupid me, after hesitation, I answered and gave them the above data.

The biggest mistake was of course giving my password, which opened for them my address book. I don't think that anybody was so stupid to transfer money to England, without contacted me or my family first.

If I really would have got stuck abroad, I first would have called my wife or daughters, and never friends or family, but today, flight tickets are computerized, you can not lose them, credit cards are used to transfer money, and ask yourself, if I would have got stuck, I would have on me, in London, the complete address book of a email service I hardly use, and contains names of people and organizations, which do not exist anymore, don't know me, and certainly are not willing to invest in me.

What did we learn from this, never give anybody your password, and don't worry about somebody closing your account, you can always open a new one.
In the mean time, and for the time being, my hotmail account is closed and taken out of service. If you need me, you know how to find me.

I apologize for my stupidity,
Yours,
David Verveer