One of these "Stranded Traveller" messages got posted to another computer email list I subscribe to, last year. The message was specifically written to appeal to the kind of person on the email list (women, in IT, many of them young.) At the time, I pointed out that the lack of specific information made the Stranded Traveller's appeal VERY suspicious, and suggested that if anyone on the list really wanted to help the Stranded Traveller, they should offer advice to her (such as, contact the U.S. consulate or embassy).

AFAIK, no one sent money. I think they would have sent funds, if the appeal had been genuine; because people really do feel obliged to help when someone is in trouble. Helpfulness is just as much a part of human nature as the impulse to defraud.

--Constance
On Feb 15, 2011, at 9:19 PM, Stewart Marshall wrote:

Oh this was an email from someone she knew for about 10 years. She left when her husband took a call in another locality last Summer.

She was not about to send her money and thought it was the real person who she has tangled with before because of financial problems.

The one sent to this list was unusual as it sent it to an email list, not an individual.

If I understand it correctly, this is done by someone or something that hacks yahoo accounts and then uses their address books within Yahoo to send out these missives.

I got two last year. One from a member of this or another similar list and then one from a church list I manage. These were individuals who I have known and have communicated with.

The first one I was sorry for their problem but was not about to send money. The second one i had just seen an email from on the list a day or two before and they had not mentioned traveling. (and this person does a bit of it.) So I was suspicious right off. He then wrote me as manager of the list that his Yahoo account had problems.

When my friend forwarded this one to me, I knew right off that it was a scam.

Stewart


At 08:05 PM 2/15/2011, you wrote:
On Tue, Feb 15, 2011 at 6:05 PM, Stewart Marshall
<revsamarsh...@earthlink.net> wrote:

> They seem to go in cycles.
>
> A friend of mine sent me a similar one that she had gotten from a former
> pastors wife who left under less than honorable conditions, and she
> forwarded it to the Sheriff.  She was that suspicious.

  Why would anyone respond to an e-mail from someone that they do not
know, have no idea who the sender is, and especially since the e-mail
suggests familiarity where none exists?

  Steve


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