Police Superintendent Targeted in Email Scams

We received some complaints in the past “Why is my name in that scam mail? I did not send that!?” Ofcourse you didn’t, and its the same for Yahoo, Microsoft, Toyota, Guiness, BMW, Peogeot, Bank of America, Natwest Bank, etc. The scammers have been impersonating all these organisations in their scam. Scammers can impersonate any individuals in their scam mail, phone calls, and even land mail. So are these real? The best person to ask is for you to contact the “originator” using the originator’s contact information. If your good friend sent you a distress message, call him or her on the phone and verify that he/she did send the message. In this case below, a scammer impersonated the Supt Dean, using his name to send out emails asking for money.

Also mentioned in the news report is another phishing scam. Although phishing scam has been around for very long, people are stilll falling for it. Just remember the rule – never reply to any “urgent” email directly or use the link on the email. The way to counter all these scams are to check back and verify with the known source and not directly to the message that was received.

Someone impersonating Supt Dean sent an email to all his contacts claiming that the senior officer lost his wallet while travelling to the United Kingdom on an unspecified programme.

The email included a customary salutation to a friend and an apology for not previously advising the recipient of the trip.

“I would like you to assist me with a soft loan urgently with the sum of 1,500 GBP which is about 2,471 USD to sort-out my hotel bills and get myself back home. I will appreciate what you can come up with and I promise to pay you back as soon as I return,” stated the email. It ends with Supt Dean’s name and list of credentials.

When contacted about the scam, Supt Dean said he had been notified about the emails and that a full investigation had been launched.

The cyber-attack on Supt Dean is the latest in a series of similar incidents brought to the attention of The Tribune. Earlier this month, Peggy Stroud, assistant librarian at St Andrew’s School, was the target of another scam.