Monday morning in the office couldn’t have started any worse. I opened my electronic mailbox and retrieved the following message:
Am writing this with tears in my eye, my family and I came down here to Wales UK for a short vacation unfortunately we were mugged at the park of the hotel where we lodge, all cash,credit card and mobile phone were stolen off from us but luckily for us we still have our passports with us. We've been to the embassy and the Police station here, but they're not helping issues at all and our flight leaves today but we're having problems settling the hotel bills, and the hotel manager won't let us leave until we settle the bills, i'm freaked out at the moment. we need a quick loan, promise to pay you back once we get home please help.
Thanks
Thanks
The message was supposedly sent by one of my associates in the office and his wife. The good news was that the same associate was actually in the office yesterday, looking happy and far from the picture of someone who recently got mugged while on vacation. It wasn’t hard to figure out that his e-mail address book was hacked and an evil someone went to work to make his life miserable.
That wasn’t the first message of its kind that has reached my mailbox. Obviously, there are people out there who make it their business to steal others’ e-mail contact information with the goal of causing cyber hell for the victims.
We do live in very dangerous times when our cyber communications are constantly threatened by identity thieves who make it their job to pry into private citizens' personal information. That’s just the tip of the iceberg, however. More complicated fraudulent schemes are being perpetuated over the Internet. One such scam involve huge amounts of money. Below is an example of a case that recently made the news on cyber heist.
A couple refinanced their home in 2009. As anyone who has done this mortgage drill knows, once the refinancing is approved, the homeowners show up at the designated closing to sign the papers. Then they can move on. End of story.
Well, for this particular couple, it was just the beginning of their two-year nightmare. They owed almost $300,000 on the old mortgage which was supposed to have been paid off by the bank that refinanced their mortgage. The bank delivered, but the original lender never received the money. The payment was swiped by organized crime in cyberland which is reportedly based in Eastern Europe. The unfortunate consequence was that as a result of the original lender not getting paid, the couple ended up with two mortgage loans. The bank that originally handled the loan started sending them late payment notices, making follow-up calls, and eventually, the foreclosure notices showed up in the mail. For this couple who was never ever late in their monthly mortgage payments, it was the dawn of their financial hell.
After suffering the harassment for allegedly not making payments on the original loan, the couple found out that they had been victims of cyberland theft. The payment that should have been transferred to the original lender was stolen from the title company’s escrow account. As a consequence, the couple found themselves on the verge of losing their home. It’s still a puzzle how the cyber criminals knew about the money transfer, but based on other similar incidents, an inside job was a possibility.
People are already hurting as it is without crooks in cyberland contributing to the problems. Instead of using their brain power for the good of the world, cyber criminals are obsessed with achieving wealth the fast and easy way. It is unthinkable that there are evil doers in the world who have no qualms about preying on innocent people. Cyber criminals will perpetuate this malevolent activity until they're caught to face the consequences of their actions. There is Someone above Who has the power to stop this wicked nonsense. In His time, those cyber beasts will get the fate they deserve. Just wait and see.
