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Apparently, not all of his contacts received the e-mail message.
Mary Ellen McGlynn, a friend of Bocknack’s, said she has heard of similar scams and was not fooled.
“I knew enough to know it wasn’t him,” she said.
McGlynn did what Internet safety experts recommend. She called Bocknack, alerting him to the scam.
Others made some effort to send money, Bocknack said. But it’s unclear if they were duped.
Bocknack said at least 25 people called him.
He tried to get into his account with his password, but could not. After several tries, his
account was shut down by Yahoo!, he said. He has since taken back control of the account, setting a new password.
Bocknack is not alone.
The Internet Crime Complaint Center, a collaboration of the FBI and the National White
Collar Crime Center, a nonprofit membership organization, sent out an alert in July, warning people about what it calls “social engineering” scams. Those scams involve compromised e-mail or social networking accounts.
Jeannette Toscano, spokeswoman for the National White Collar Crime Center, said the center began receiving reports of the scam in June.
The scammers attack e-mail and social media pages by sending worms to unsuspecting users through links or downloads, Toscano said.
“As long as there is e-mail, e-mail scams will happen,” she said.
The desire of people to help a friend or loved one frequently overwhelms any suspicions.
The scammers “prey on the emotions of their victims,” she said.
She offered a few basic tips: Create good passwords, change them frequently, do not open e-mail if you don’t know who it’s from, and certainly do not click on links or download anything from an unknown source.
The center urges anyone who has been the victim of such a scam to file a complaint at www.ic3.govhttp://www.ic3.gov/.
Ken Serrano: 732-565-7212; kserrano@MyCentralJersey.comkserrano@MyCentralJersey.com
Category: Social Media Threats