Scammed

I got scammed on Facebook this morning. I'm sure it happens all the time, but it hadn't happened to me before and it felt really creepy. Here's what happened.

I logged on to Facebook to look at something quickly before going to work. The moment I got on the chat screen popped up from a friend and neighbor and sort of relative, in other words someone I know pretty well.

The chat box said "r u there", which was my first clue that this was something odd, as he would not likely write in "computerspeak". Actually, it was my second clue, since him actually communicating via the chat box at 7:30 a.m., or at all, just wouldn't be expected.

I, nevertheless, responded, "I'm here.," and then it went something like this:

"I'm in London."

"What?"

"I'm in London, and I got mugged."

"Okay."

"They got my wallet with all my money and my ID and my credit cards."

"What?"

"Yeah, can you help me? I just need some money to take care of my hotel bill."

At that point I immediately logged off of Facebook.

And, yes, I let my friend know someone had hacked into his account.

Last week my daughter got an e-mail from a friend asking for just a little bit of money to help with something. My daughter e-mailed the friend telling her someone had hacked into her
e-mail, and immediately got an e-mail back saying "no, really, I need your help." Then , of course, my daughter called her friend, and it turned out several people had gotten the same
e-mail request.

It's hard to believe people really get sucked in by these things, but they must because it wouldn't keep happening if someone wasn't benefiting.

It left me feeling really uneasy, but I guess not as bad as I would feel if I had actually sent money off into cyberspace.