Tazewell County Sheriff's Office warns of scam

By: Jim Talbert | Richlands News Press
Published: January 06, 2010

Abingdon --

The Tazewell County Sheriff’s Office is warning residents to be aware of a Facebook phishing scam that has surfaced in Tazewell County.
Residents should be aware that a bogus message asking for money to be sent to the United Kingdom is being sent through the Facebook network. The message is received on the Facebook network messaging system and appears to be legitimate in nature as it seems to be from one of your friends. It states that the sender (your friend) is stranded in London, England after being robbed of their money and credit card. The bogus message was asking that the recipient send money to an address in the United Kingdom so that they can purchase an airline ticket to get back home.
The Facebook account is accessed somehow, possibly by obtaining the user name and password in some manner. In the Tazewell County incident, the account holder’s email address had even been changed to an “operamail” address, thus diverting response messages that may have alerted her to the fraudulent activity.
As of today, only one of these events has been reported in Tazewell County.
Major Chris Boyd says that it is important to keep your internet user names and passwords protected. As an added measure, you should change your passwords from time to time. Don’t post personal information about yourself (date of birth and social security number) and avoid displaying your email address. Always be aware of emails and messages that seem suspicious or too good to be true. Most times they are and they can leave you without your money or identity if you fall for them.
You can report these types of international computer scams to the FBI’s Internet Crimes Complaint Center by logging onto www.ic3.gov.

Tazewell County Sheriff's Office warns of scam

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