Fraudsters send mails and ask for money because they allegedly lost all their money and credit cards. Consumers who help in good will might loose a lot of money.
Within the mails, a known or foreign person (the names change) ask for rapid assistance.
For example:
„How are you doing? This has had to come in a hurry and it has left us in a devastating state. My family and I had a visit to (Sevilla,Spain) unannounced some days back for a short vacation, unfortunately we were mugged at the park of the hotel where we stayed, all cash, cell phones and credit cards were stolen off us but luckily for us we still have our passports with us. We've been to the Embassy and the Police here but they're not helping issues at all and our flight leaves in few hours from now. But we're having problems settling the hotel bills and the hotel manager won't let us leave until we settle the bills. Please we need you to loan us (€1,750 EUR) about ($2,300) to sort out the hotel bills and also take a cab to the airport. Please, let me know if you can help us out?......I promise to refund it back to you when i get home. I'm looking forward to hearing from you so i can send you the details how to send money.”
Those cries for help are coming from fraudsters. If you answer, they ask you to transfer money via the cash transporter Western Union. Important note: You will never see this money again! Unlike payments with credit card or bank transfer, you can't revoke such a cash transport.
Costly calls at value-added phone numbers
That is not the only way that these fraudsters try to get money. Phone numbers in the mails turn out to be British value-added numbers, which can cause high costs. Consumers who called those numbers got a nasty surprise with their next phone bill. Their only possibility was to send a registered letter to their provider to tell them about the fraud and that they refuse to pay the bill. If the provider does not comply, they can contact the enforcement body Telekom-Regulierungsbehörde RTR for help.
