How do I report the hijacking of my email that led to a theft?

[tibbir]

A couple of months ago my email account was hijacked. My password was changed by the jerk so I had to answer my secret questions I'd set up and change my email password to a more difficult one, as per the coaching of AT&T technical support. Unfortunately, they didn't think to advise me to also change my secret questions (and it didn't occur to me either), so the same person answered my secret questions last week and hijacked my email account again. This time he/she sent an email in my name to most of my contacts saying that I was stranded in London and needed funds to get home, eat, etc. Everyone understood immediately that this was a hoax except for one 80-something year old client of mine. I found out the next day that she wired via Western Union almost $2,000 to this creep. In fact, she almost wired an additional $2,000 but was advised by Western Union that the request was fraudulent the second time. I feel terrible about her loss - I'm going to prepare her returns without charge for the next few years to put her back whole again. I hate losing the $2,000 but I can't stand the idea of her being swindled by anything that is associated with me, even to this extent.

All that to say, her husband wants me to notify our local police and file a report that my email was hijacked. I don't mind doing this but I can't see them being even vaguely interested. Could someone let me know who I should contact or if it's futile at this stage to do anything.

Thanks in advance for your help.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. The FBI has a whole department that deals with this stuff.

http://www.fbi.gov/scams-safety/fraud/internet_fraud

[tibbir]

4. Thanks, I knew there had to be some contact

I'll get with them right away. Hope it does some good somehow.

[yardwork]

2. Same scam happened to my FB page. Same story line. London, etc.

Some friends of mine had a good time toying with the scammer until I logged on and reported it to FB. Apparently it is a very common scam. The criminal actually engages in dialogue with anybody who responds to the emails or PMs. I'm sorry that this happened to your client. Good thing it wasn't worse.

[tibbir]

5. Yeah, I think we've all seen stuff like that before

The problem with my client is that, even though she's really smart, she's an easy mark for these kinds of emails. She's constantly forwarding those emails that are easily slammed down with snopes. I'm so thankful that Western Union stopped her before she made the second transfer.

[yardwork]

10. The elderly are particularly vulnerable to scammers.

I live in an area with a lot of retirees and I hear so many horror stories.

The scammers target the elderly. I was home from work yesterday and in the middle of the day I got a call from a "nice young man" who said he was responding to my problems with Windows. What? I hadn't made any phone calls, I wasn't having any problems. He had a song and dance about how everybody on Windows needed some kind of patch, he was calling to help. Right. Goodbye. Click.

That call was obviously trolling for retired people sitting at home on a weekday at noon, many of whom might be having problems with their computers, might think that this person was calling in response to a request for help.

Yesterday's "helpful young man" wasn't very good at being personable, but I've wasted time in the past with people claiming to be from phone company offering a better deal for the preschool I was volunteering for as treasurer, etc. That woman was incredibly good.

[catabryna]

3. Good luck with that...

but, if you want to commiserate, PM me. :smoke:

[MADem]

6. I agree with the people who say contact the FBI.

You could also file a police report because after all, the fraud resulted in a felonious theft.

You could at least send a copy of the report to the lady and her husband.

[tibbir]

7. I just reported the incident to the FBI and will file a report with the police tomorrow morning

You're right. It won't do anything to get the money back to them (it's gonna take several no-pay tax returns to take care of that), but it may help them get some closure.

[MADem]

8. I am so sorry this happened to you. When it affects your business, it is doubly distressing.

It's one thing for some nitwit to hijack your 'throw-away' email that you use for junk mail, but your business address? So terrible.

Hope you can sort it all out to the best of your ability. You might want to warn your clients to not believe any "distress" emails should they get any in future.

Have someone who knows what they are doing give your computer a good going over, virus and malware-wise, to make sure they haven't created a backdoor into your data and can keep doing this to you.

[tibbir]

9. Thanks for the warning about going over my computer...

I thought I was over the email hijacking the first time a couple of months ago and then this happened. I will definitely follow up!