In a particularly new incident, Ron Holt (father of Blair Holt who was murdered at Chicago Public School) became a victim of an Internet scam that tried to defraud people off their cash, exploiting his name, e-mail account and sympathy of those who loved him, as reported by CHICAGO NOW on December 21, 2009.
According to the reports, some overseas scammers hijacked Ron's Facebook pages and e-mail account on December 20, 2009. The scammers apparently from Nigeria told false stories to execute the online phishing scam. They (scammers) dispatched e-mails saying that Ron, who was in Nigeria to attend a Bible conference, had been robbed of his money and password. As a result, Ron's supporters and friends may urgently wire him $1,850 so that he could fly back home from Africa, the online criminals fraudulently urged. Naturally, the news worried and terrified Holt's relatives and friends who began calling him. Holt himself had no idea of the scam until his cousin rang him up. Ron was, however, safe at home in Chicago. A neighbor of Holt named Jenny Pfanenstiel, who had received the e-mail, was so terrified that she instantly went to Holt's house next door to find out the actual state of her neighbor's problem. Later, Jenny said that she was so glad that Holt was alright. According to her, she had imagined that someone probably held Holt at gun point and made him write the e-mail, as reported by 02 on December 20, 2009. Meanwhile, Holt, who feels dishonored, says that he wanted to go to Nigeria one day, but the present incident completely discouraged him, as reported by 02 on December 20, 2009. Considering Holt's case, security experts say that it clearly indicates to the continued existence and working of phishing scams because people still care to help. But it also suggests the increasing sophistication of Nigerian scammers. Hence, if anyone gets an e-mail asking for funds to help someone stranded in a foreign country, he should instantly remove it from his mailbox, according to the experts. |
