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Girlfriend Email scammed - 10K - action steps? (1 Viewer)

dancingbones

dancingbones

Footballguy
I have incomplete info, but what I know now is that someone hacked into her Gmail account and responded to an email from her sister about $$ that my girlfriend had coming to her. Long story short, someone created and continued a correspondence that resulted in her sister wiring $10K from a Canadian bank account to an account in Houston.

Anyone know what actions steps she can take or should be taking here? She's in a bit of overwhelm right now & I'm looking to this community to see if anyone has any insight into what we can or should be doing to possibly get the $$ back, or at least to minimize any future damage.

Her gmail is pretty organized, and contains copies of her taxes. It appears to have be compromised for at least 2 weeks.

Any input appreciated, constructive informative input the most.

Thanks

 
Send me her SS number, date of birth, address, and all her important bank information. I'm pretty sure I can help you guys out, I just need that info immediately.

 
Not to digress from the point of this thread but is her sister crazy for sending that amount of money without confirming on the phone?

 
Ditkaless Wonders said:
If you are just in it with this girlfriend for the sex, by all means continue with her. If you are looking forward to marriage or some other commitment you need to find a smarter girl. I hope that advice proves helpful.

1. Contact sister to let her know that her banking information is in the hands of a scammer.

2. Contact your State Attorney General. They may handle the matter. At the least their webpage will have information on how to proceed to re-secure her information.
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it's her fault that her e-mail got hacked?

I have 2-step verification on my account, which might help in the future.

 
I would think you should report it to the email provider, to the banks involved, to your local police as well as to the FBI. Here's a link to the US Dept of Justice page on reporting cyber crimes: http://www.justice.gov/criminal/cybercrime/reporting.html

Edit to add: Also to the appropriate Canadian authorities.

I would probably start with the authorities, but would talk to the banks involved quickly too, so the destination bank might be able to freeze the account or take any other steps that might help in recovering the money. Though my guess is they already moved the money.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Ditkaless Wonders said:
If you are just in it with this girlfriend for the sex, by all means continue with her. If you are looking forward to marriage or some other commitment you need to find a smarter girl. I hope that advice proves helpful.

1. Contact sister to let her know that her banking information is in the hands of a scammer.

2. Contact your State Attorney General. They may handle the matter. At the least their webpage will have information on how to proceed to re-secure her information.
Click to expand...
She didn't send $10k to a Nigerian prince. Her account got hacked and someone used that account to extort $10k out of someone else.

 
Wat???

There is a two week correspondence between her sister and the scammer via email? The sister never bothered to call her before loaning her $10k? She doesn't have a smartphone where this correspondence was landing every time she got a new email?

 
One other point - you can check the email to see where it was from.

Check the IP address (it's a number). If it's your computer that is what will show. If it's another computer that is what will show, it may give away their location.

 
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Did google warn her that her account was being accessed from somewhere else, like China, because mine did and I changed passwords which seems to have made it go away, but after hearing your story I might just shut the email down all together

 
Thanks for the helpful suggestions. We're following it up.

Will contact the banks & the local Attny General.

Will also talk to GF about just deleting that email acct completely.

Getting that not much can happen until Monday with a lot of these banks. Hope that isn't too late but wouldn't be surprised if it was.

 
dancingbones said:
Thanks for the helpful suggestions. We're following it up.

Will contact the banks & the local Attny General.

Will also talk to GF about just deleting that email acct completely.

Getting that not much can happen until Monday with a lot of these banks. Hope that isn't too late but wouldn't be surprised if it was.
Click to expand...
Do not delete the email account if it is evidence, that would be very bad. You want to change your PW's, get Norton to the max and spend what you need to on that, but the emails could help lead you or the authorities back to the criminals.

 
TenTimes said:
Did google warn her that her account was being accessed from somewhere else, like China, because mine did and I changed passwords which seems to have made it go away, but after hearing your story I might just shut the email down all together
Click to expand...
No warning from Gmail.

She checked something earlier today that said her email had been accessed from Colorado.

 
Greg Russell said:
I would think you should report it to the email provider, to the banks involved, to your local police as well as to the FBI. Here's a link to the US Dept of Justice page on reporting cyber crimes: http://www.justice.gov/criminal/cybercrime/reporting.html

Edit to add: Also to the appropriate Canadian authorities.

I would probably start with the authorities, but would talk to the banks involved quickly too, so the destination bank might be able to freeze the account or take any other steps that might help in recovering the money. Though my guess is they already moved the money.
Click to expand...
Thanks.

 
fred_1_15301 said:
Not to digress from the point of this thread but is her sister crazy for sending that amount of money without confirming on the phone?
Click to expand...
Both women involved very competent professionals.

Girlfriend had that $$ coming to her already from her sister (not a loan). Scammer hacked girlfriends account & sent emails telling her what to do with the $$, adding that her phone wasn't working, so she could only be contacted by email.

 
SaintsInDome2006 said:
dancingbones said:
Thanks for the helpful suggestions. We're following it up.

Will contact the banks & the local Attny General.

Will also talk to GF about just deleting that email acct completely.

Getting that not much can happen until Monday with a lot of these banks. Hope that isn't too late but wouldn't be surprised if it was.
Click to expand...
Do not delete the email account if it is evidence, that would be very bad. You want to change your PW's, get Norton to the max and spend what you need to on that, but the emails could help lead you or the authorities back to the criminals.
Click to expand...
Good info, I'll pass that on.

She has changed the password on that account & a bunch of banking accounts, apple ID, etc.

 
shadyridr said:
Wow some of these comments are way out of line IMO
Click to expand...
Yeah, not the most helpful thing to try to explain to my GF as she is going through this thread while I'm off somewhere else.

I get it because I've spent the last 12 years here in the FFA, but would appreciate if the commentary could be checked.

This forum is a great resource, but you've gotta weed through some muck to get there sometimes.

 
dancingbones said:
shadyridr said:
Wow some of these comments are way out of line IMO
Click to expand...
Yeah, not the most helpful thing to try to explain to my GF as she is going through this thread while I'm off somewhere else.

I get it because I've spent the last 12 years here in the FFA, but would appreciate if the commentary could be checked.

This forum is a great resource, but you've gotta weed through some muck to get there sometimes.
Click to expand...
Well, All you needed to do was to mention that you share this board, or this thread with her, and would I be so kind as to delete anything which might make her uncomfortable.

 
Had something similar happen about 4 years ago, though not exactly the same (details on mine below). Regardless the aftermath sounds like it might be the same unfortunately.

I contacted local authorities who sought a warrant to obtain login details etc from google. However, without specific information on who perpetrated the crime, the judge wouldn't even sign off on the warrant. So, dead end...

I was able to determine that the criminal was likely overseas so I spoke with the FBI. They did perform an initial investigation to see if anything obvious jumped out. But when nothing turned up they said unless the amount was significant then it wouldn't receive any more attention. They didn't state what "significant" meant but i gathered that it was 6 figures or even 7+

Now, in my case it was through a business email where someone intercepted a Purchase Order to a supplier. Either through hacking the biz email or the vendors. They then created two very (VERY) similar email addresses and acted in between my company and the vendor without either of us noticing. So, the vendor thought they were getting paid and we thought we were paying the vendor

With all that said, b/c your sisters wire ended up going to a bank in the US, you may have better ground to stand on when speaking to authorities. At the very least you should immediately add 2 step verification to the account, change the password, and probably even change banking information. She'll also need to look through her emails and figure out what other personal info is in there. The thief likely downloaded her entire account and it may be worth their time to look for additional money grabs. Placing a credit lock is also a good idea IMO

Good luck, hope it works out better than my situation

 
Ditkaless Wonders said:
dancingbones said:
shadyridr said:
Wow some of these comments are way out of line IMO
Click to expand...
Yeah, not the most helpful thing to try to explain to my GF as she is going through this thread while I'm off somewhere else.I get it because I've spent the last 12 years here in the FFA, but would appreciate if the commentary could be checked.

This forum is a great resource, but you've gotta weed through some muck to get there sometimes.
Click to expand...
Well, All you needed to do was to mention that you share this board, or this thread with her, and would I be so kind as to delete anything which might make her uncomfortable.
Click to expand...
Consider it mentioned, and thanks!
 
SaintsInDome2006 said:
One other point - you can check the email to see where it was from.

Check the IP address (it's a number). If it's your computer that is what will show. If it's another computer that is what will show, it may give away their location.
Click to expand...
:goodposting:

When you open up the email, scroll down to the bottom of the page and on the right is says Last account activity: (shows last log in) and right below this is a clickable link that says Details and it shows the ip addresses from where it has been accessed from.

 
Few things.

1. You can't be thin-skinned around here. Expect a certain percentage of smartasses one-upping each other with the one liners, unless it's a thread about cancer or death. Don't get all indignant about it. You'll see there are also solid bits of advice too.

2. The fact that it's $10k and not a smaller amount is a good thing, because the authorities may actually pursue it. I had a credit card stolen and $700 in fraudulent charges at a Macy's. I told the cops right away so they could run over there and pull the security tapes, but they said they don't bother when it's less than $5k. The bank writes it off and we all absorb the cost in interest.

3. I wouldn't expect the money to be recovered any time soon, but I would advise her to be really patient, persistent and cordial when following up with the cops, FBI, AG or whomever, but follow up regularly. I hope she gets her money back and the dirtbag or ******** is apprehended.

 
trogg78 said:
The bank's wire department should be able to send a recall to the receiving bank.
Click to expand...
Gotta catch it really quick though. If the payment has already posted and the funds cleared, it's probably too late. I just went through this with a fraudulent PayPal withdrawal and it was a piece of cake to resolve it, but I reported it immediately.

 
trogg78 said:
The bank's wire department should be able to send a recall to the receiving bank.
Click to expand...
Don't know the details of when it was sent, but I'll let her know.

Sister (who sent it) is on vacation with no cell phone or laptop & doesn't have the account info on her. Bad timing.

 
Baloney Sandwich said:
Definitely thinking the sister is in on it now
Click to expand...
Sister definitely not in on anything. Sister actually pissed at my GF for sending her so many emails & being so insistent. Amazing how being sent an email & told not to call could be so effective, but it was. Haven't seen any of the emails yet, but hopefully it can all get sorted out.

Right now, my main concern is any other fraud that could be coming that we should be on the lookout for. Will have my GF look at all of the suggestions here so she can put into play whichever ones she sees fit.

 
Hate to say it but, since she voluntarily sent the money, I don't think the bank is going to do much of anything. Her account wasn't hacked and the money illegally moved. She voluntarily sent it out of stupidity. The bank has little to no liability here.

 
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