Gunpoint mail scam
David O'Leary • Published 19 Jul 2011 09:30
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AN Innerleithen community councillor is unwittingly fronting an online scam claiming she has been held up at gunpoint.
Gillian Steele, was stunned when she began receiving concerned phonecalls from friends and family after they each received an email claiming she'd been mugged in Valencia.
Instead office manager Gillian was thousands of miles away at work for breeze art gallery in Walkerburn.
Her personal email account was hacked into by fraudsters on Tuesday and a desperate message was sent to each of her contacts claiming that all her belongings, cash, mobile phone and credit cards had been stolen.
The scammers even provided a telephone number and address for the hotel she was alleged to be staying at so that friends could make cash transfers.
Gillian said: "It's so worrying that this could happen, I've received a load of phonecalls from people wondering what's going on. I've had to tell them them I'm not on holiday in Valencia but alive and well and at work in Walkerburn.
"All my sent and received emails have been deleted from my account. It would be interesting to know whether any of my friends or family did actually send any money to my aid though."
Earlier this year, the National Fraud Authority launched a new operation to track down the fraudsters behind the multi-million pound industry in scam mail and appealed for public input.
People receiving messages are urged to forward copies to email@actionfraud.org.uk.
Chief executive of Action Fraud Dr Bernard Herdan said doing so would give "unprecedented" information about criminal activity.
Last year, more than 3,000 people reported being scammed but police believe many more are too embarrassed to admit they fell for them.
This article appeared in Peeblesshire News 15 Jul 11
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