Email Scammer Uses Name of Former Hingham Business Owner

The following was sent from the Hingham Police Department:

On February 14, 2013, a 70 year old South Hingham woman came to the police station to report an attempted scam by email that falsely used the name of a former Hingham business owner and resident.

The victim received an email from a person known to her as a Hingham business owner (an interior design company). The email address was the name of the business simply added to a newly created yahoo email account. 

 The e-mail was in regards to a request to loan a large sum of money to her. The e-mail stated:

"I'm writing this with tears in my eyes, my family an i came down here to Manila, Philippines. for a short vacation and got mugged at gunpoint last night at the park of the hotel where we were lodged.. All cash, credit cards and cell were stolen off me... I've been to the embassy and the police here but they're not helping issues at al.... But the good thing is that we still have out passport, our flights leaves today and I'm having problems settling the hotel bills, all we need is $2.500 but anything you could assist with now be helpful now... Am freaked out right now please reply and let me if can you have the money wire to me through western union I'll surely get the money back to you in couple of days".

The victim said she thought this was odd because the person named in the email had recently moved out of town and that she was only familiar with her through her interior design business.

This is a scam attempt on behalf of the e-mail address to obtain large sums of money. The victim was advised to not communicate any further with the e-mail address in question and under no circumstances wire any money.

These scam attempts happen often, everywhere, and usually target the elderly. In this case the "scammer" applied some local name and business connection to make it appear more legitimate. This information was probably obtained through information obtained through Internet searches or postings on social media.