COUNSELOR NUN SCAMMED

I received this morning an email coming from Sr. Cora Lobo, which says, and I quote:

I am in a hurry writing you this message i am sorry i didn't inform you about my urgent trip to London i don't have much time on the pc here,so i have to brief you my present situation which requires your urgent response actually, I had a trip to London yesterday but unfortunately for me all my money got stolen at the hotel where i lodged due to a robbery incident that happened in the hotel.I had been so restless since last night cos i have been without any money i am even oweing the hotel here as well moreover the Hotel's telephone lines here got dissconnected by the robbers and they are trying to get them fixed back i have access to only emails at the library because my mobile cant work here so i didnt bring it along,please i want you to help me with money so please can you send me 1,200,Pounds so when i return back i would refund it back to you as soon as i get home,I am so confused right now and dont know what to do,you can have it sent through Western Union Money Transfer so will get it immediately its sent but let me know if you can helpme then i will make findings.please let me hear from you so i can give you my full name and address where you can send the money to today please.Its really urgent for me as i dont know what to do right now than to leave here soonest you send it to me and i'll pay you back immediately i get home..Thanks alot for your kindness,

I will really appreciate your quick response.

Best Regard

Sr. Cora

I contacted her myself and informed her about this, and her reply:

Tnax Father, my sister told. It's a hoax! how to solve ds! Many of our sisters r victims of this.

In case you have received this email above, PLS DON'T ACT ON IT. IT'S A HOAX. I was a victim myself last year when I was in the U.S. Hope the action to report it will work like it did on my part last year.

Yes, how do you avoid this problem?

First, like me, Sr. Cora replied to an email saying that her email address was one of those chosen to be removed from yahoo (in my case it was gmail or google) unless she gave her user number and password and other data.

We must have been so innocent and naive because we gave our required data. Sure enough, what the scammer did was to immediately access the email, change password, and lo and behold, the scammer has become the owner of the email account.

To fulfill the scammer's evil way, emails were sent to those in the contacts list, usually milking them money via incredible stories. Woe to those naive people who will reply because the poor Sr. Cora may not have the amount to pay back what was owed deceitfully. One of my friends nearly gave P1,000, and the other P10,000. I would have owed so much had they not done their investigation prior to releasing the money.

So, NEVER REPLY TO ANY EMAIL THAT SAYS YOUR EMAIL ACCOUNT WILL BE ERASED NO MATTER WHO SENDS IT TO YOU! What you can do is spam it immediately. I believe that the email servers live by some ethical standards and one of them is to NEVER DECEIVE PEOPLE. The internet is a "dark world" where no one really gets to know the other unless there is a previous basis, or in my case, a picture, and actual address, continuous communications. Really, life in the dark virtual world of the internet can be precarious, much like in the real world.

How did I solve the problem?

I sent an email to abuse@gmail.com who immediately replied, asking me some questions pertaining to establishing my rightful ownership of the account. I was asked for some data and account numbers which I thankfully kept in my secondary account, my yahoo email. From there, I received the communications gmail made to the scammer and their intent to recover the account. I gave gmail the absolute right to "bomb the house" so to say just to recover ownership of the account. The problem started on Dec. 16, my ordination anniversary last year, and on Dec. 24, 2007 I got it back.

Thanks gmail guys! If you did not succeed, I would have never been able to use this blog again.

Thanks and God bless