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Y’all.. this has been one. crazy. weekend.
Let me start by saying I’m sorry. I know a lot of you received an email from “me.”
It all started while I was at a birthday party on Saturday. I have my iPhone with me 24/7, so I had just checked my email. No big deal.
Then I get a phone call from my aunt. Weird.
She says “Where are you?”
I said, “Umm, Cleveland, Ohio. Why?”
Aunt says, “Well, we just received an email from you, and assumed it was spam, but you might want to look into that.”
The email was this:
I’m writing this with tears in my eyes,i came down here to London,England for a short vacation to visit a resort and got mugged at gun point last night at the park of the hotel where i lodged.All
cash,credit cards and cell were stolen off.I’ve been to the embassy and the Police here but they’re not helping issues at all,Our flight leaves today and I’m having problems settling the hotel bills.
The hotel manager won’t let us leave until i settle the hotel bills(1,000 GBP) now am freaked out.Please reply and let me if can you have the money wire to me through western union i promise to pay back as soon as i get back home.
Rachel
Obviously I was not in London. Let’s face it… I’m going to Maine in a month, and I cannot stop talking about it. You would think if I was taking a trip to, I dunno… let’s say LONDON, you all would know about it. Right? Right.
Then all of the calls came. Aunts, uncles, mother, father… texts from everyone. Tweets from people. Then I tried to log on to Facebook. No-go. Facebook hacked. Logged into my blog email (itsahero@gmail.com). No-go. Hijacked as well.
My life crumbled. I couldn’t tell everyone I was OK. Not to mention, my blog is controlled by my GMail.
I spent most of the weekend crying. I felt taken advantage of. I was exposed. Everything was completely out of my control.
omg that is SO horrible! who would do such a disgusting thing? it's not even the potential for scamming people out of money that is most infuriating, but rather the fact that they completely violated your personal space and your relationships. i'm so sorry this happened, sweetie. that is rough, rough, rough. since you called this post, “part 1,” i'm assuming there's more to the story, but let me just say that i hope you got everything straightened out and that you are feeling better. *hugs*
I saw your email this morning from the other account. I never received the fake one. I'm so sorry this happened to you. I'm sure it makes you feel very violated and helpless. I hope it's all getting straightened out.
My one question is, who the hell decides to do things like that and why do they find it entertaining to totally destroy people's identities!?!?! UGH.
Oh no hun Im sooo sorry. I hope it didnt ruin too much of your weekend with the BF.
That is horrible girl…i hope you can find someone to help you out, I wish I knew more about this stuff.
This just recently happened to a friend of mine with her college email account and her facebook….it was horrible. Her email though said she was in Mexico and all this stuff, well she is pregnant and on bed rest so most ppl knew it wasn't her but she had to delete her facebook account and get a new email account at her college.
She felt so horrible – I can't even imagine having something like that happen!
This is bizarre!! I received that exact email this weekend but I didn't know who the sender was. I just looked through my trash email and it was sent from your address, itsahero@gmail! That is so crazy, I'm so sorry this happened to you. I am beyond amazed and appalled at how people can do this to others. I really hope you get everything straightened out, sweetie. Glad you're ok!
I'm sorry this happened. I received that email from you the other morning. Hope this is out of your hair soon. How frustrating.
Girl- that sucks awful. So I am assuming you don't know who did it or how, huh? Keep us updated- I'd be curious to see how this pans out. It probably doesn't matter but this is one reason I don't have an iPhone. Every one of my friends with it has been hacked in some way or another. 🙁 SCARY!!
Oh my gosh – I'm so sorry!
How crazy!! I got that email and was SO confused…I was like “seriously, she didn't tell us she was going to London??” Haha!
I am so sorry, I hope you get everything sorted out.
I am so sorry this happened. It looks like you're getting it sorted out. I don't get how stuff like this happens. It's ridiculous.
Hope it didn't totally ruin your weekend with bf.
well since you posted here i'm assuming you regained control of everything? i'm so sorry that completely sucks! ugh. hijackers are just plain mean, boo on them.
I got that crazy email from you! I kinda freaked because I opened it, but I guess the scam is the money part! That is so awful and scary!!
I'm so sorry that happened to you! I knew about this scam because they told all the teachers about it at school. Apparently it happened to a recent graduate of the school I work at and teachers were getting emails about this student. But I have no idea how these scammers get your information. i got your email but luckily hadn't opened it yet. Hope you get things all fixed. We are all glad that it was a hoax and that you are indeed ok.
This just sucks SO BAD!! This is the scary thing about the internet. I hate it. But it seems like you are starting to get things straightened out so hopefully it is all behind you. Hang in there sweetie 🙁
I knew straight away that something was wrong when the person refused to give the the name of the hotel that they were staying at…and the fact that I wouldn't send money to someone that I didn't know anyway!
I know London too well, and I would have mailed the Manager straight away!
I have since changed my e-mail address, and I never keep the same one for very long anyway.
There are far too many weirdos out there!
SO awful!!! I'm sorry, hon.
i got that e-mail and wondered…and i thought it was just a spammer with the same name. i knew you weren't in london.
so sorry you had to go through that.
So horrible! Technology is great, yet it can be very scary when things like this happen.