MANSFIELD, OHIO -- A Mansfield city councilwoman had her email address list hacked by scammers hoping to trick friends and acquaintances into "rescuing" her by wiring money to them through Western Union.
Ellen Haring, who is running for the Ohio Senate next year, believes the fake messages claiming she was stranded in London with her credit cards and cash stolen, went out to several hundred people. As far as she knows, no one took the bait.
Haring filed a report with Mansfield police. The Mansfield city councilwoman will run in 2012 against two other candidates for the newly organized 22th Ohio Senate District seat.
The email message, sent a few days before Christmas, featured more accurate spelling and better grammar than most phishing emails. In part the message read:
"I am presently stuck in London, United Kingdom for a short vacation unfortunately i was mugged at the park of the hotel where i stayed, all cash, credit card and cell were stolen off me but luckily for me i still have my passports with me," the message said. "I've been to the embassy and the Police here but they're not helping issues at all and my flight leaves in less than 6hrs from now but am having problems settling the hotel bills and the hotel manager won't let me leave until i settle the bills."
Haring got immediate feedback.
"The phone calls started at 7:30 in the morning and continued for several days. So many concerned people called to inform me and to express concern over the situation," Haring said. "Some called just to find humor in the whole thing. It was a lovely Christmas present to know so many people cared!
"Every person with whom I have had email contact over the past decade probably received one! I would estimate several hundred, maybe more."
Haring's private AOL email account was involved. Her City of Mansfield email account was not affected. No damage was done to her computer, but all of her email contacts on AOL were wiped out."They are definitely trying to make money. The message was all about money and how to wire it," she said. "If unwitting respondents sent money (hopefully not), the hackers could walk into any Western Union office in the world and retrieve it."
Mansfield police Detective Cecil Burton said no suspects have been identified.
The city councilwoman reported having a purse stolen, but "as far as I could tell, that information did not result from that theft," he said. While this particular type of scam is not often reported to Mansfield police, identity theft is common.
"This time of year, a lot of people try to take the easy way out to get access to money," Burton said. "If you know your way around a computer, you can maneuver around and get access to all kinds of things."
Haring said she's still working to repair the damage."I tried to close AOL, but ... I cannot," Haring said. "Another victim I know did not change her password soon enough and lost all her addresses and stored emails, too.
"I did not lose any of my emails, nor were other email accounts touched."
Read about how to protect yourself here
Richard Figley
Independent Associate
1-800-DO-A-WILL
www.800-DO-A-WILL.com
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