@econobiker: Or it could've just been someone spoofing your address.

@AstroPig7:

or maybe 500$ to remedy!

Have three levels of passwords:

level one: a throwaway that never changes, used for web forums and non critical stuff.

level two: a better one, used only for email accounts.

level three: the one you use only on your home PC ... and a second one only for online banking.

/facepalm

Andy:: actually I have a shitload of band-aids and morphine. I could send that instead

"This account is open in 1 other location (255.255.255.255). Last account activity: 40 minutes ago on this computer. Details"

The 'Details' link will take you to a new page where you can forcibly sign out the other sessions. Change your password prior to doing this.

Seriously, I tell anyone I know that if they ever need money from me over $50.00, it will be handed over face to face. If it is physically impossible to do it face to face, then they need to call me directly from a telephone number that I can see on caller ID. Fortunately I only know one person that hits me up for money all the time and she ony nickel-and-dimes me rather than asking for hundreds at once.

@morkus: That sounds like wish-it-was-two-factor authentication to me. How do they know what phone to SMS the key to? Presumably, there's an account option where you enter your phone number, yes? If they got in via anything other than brute-forcing the password, this does no good. True two-factor authentication isn't vulnerable in this way and is decidedly worth the $5 or so it costs. I wish it were an option anywhere you're handling money like this.

@pythonkid: Because they already have plenty of Somolians?

(sorry, I couldn't resist)

@Subliminal0182: The bounce email was probably a scam itself...

@korybing:

Why are there so many Nigerian email scammers? Because it is a local industry that is hugely successfull for a country that the average legal salary is about $200 per year.

You'd think other countries would try to get in on this action by now. They try but something about laws usually catches up to them.

Can we cut that whole F*cking country off from our DNS servers alerady?

@JuneCarter: I'm suprised anyone would fall for that type of scam. If I don't know my friend is in London they sure as hell aren't close enough to me to get money

I too was hacked on Facebook last week. Someone was sending my friends IMs saying I had been held up at gunpoint in London and needed $600. My friends didn't fall for it, particularly because they said the "fake" me was incredibly belligerent when they didn't respond.

Anyway, Time Mag did do a story on this recently: [www.time.com]

BAC

Why is it always Nigeria? Why cant some Somoli pirates try this?

It also allows you to sign out of all other Gmail sessions from the session you're currently using. Nifty stuff.

Consumerist, please advise people that password hacking is not the only way to compromise a gmail account. Cross site scripting is also effective, and the easiest way to prevent it is to go into your gmail settings and set it to use https only. I'm not sure if you would be safer using a more secure browser like chrome or firefox, rather than IE.

[blog.thekbuzz.com]

This is the best part of the article.

The rate of evolution for these idiots is pretty slow (thank God). But they do seem to come up with new tricks here and there. This is pretty much the equivalent of those "Help, Grandma, I'm hurt and stuck in mother#&^$ing Canada!" scams -- [consumerist.com]

be happy you can even login into your gmail accounts. My account got hacked by a webcam scammer and he changed the password. luckily it was my spam bucket account and not my actual business account. Google was nice enought o let me know that they were powerless to stop teh hacker since I couldn't recall the last 5 emails I sent with that account sicne I never use it to send any actual emails.

I've changed my passwords and stuff, but still don't understand how this could've happened!

I don't understand why the scammer continued to talk when the real Jeff realized what was going on. The scary thing to me is that scammers still use tactics like this, that means there has to be people out there who actually fall for that crap.

And seriously, Nigeria? If you're lying about everything else, pick a new country! Nothing sounds worse then "can you send money to Nigeria." (I feel a little bad for people who are actually in Nigeria trying to do legitimate business because of this)

If the scammer had a better command of English, or worse, was an American with basic cultural knowledge, he could do more damage.

I had the same thing happen to me about three weeks ago, to my Hotmail account. Once in, they change not only the password but all the secondary 'if you forget your password' data.

The scammer broadcast a form letter to my 10 years worth of collected email addresses. It was convincing enough to have at least six people call my house to confirm - at 7 f****ing oclock Sunday morning. Some people entered a dialogue with him, and the command of english fell off dramatically from the already suspicious letter. Some freinds were asking questions to verify ('Where did we have dinner yesterday?') and if the scammer wasn't so lazy - he could have simply read the pile of emails he was sitting on to get the answer.

Seems like the scammer would have to get the money sent to Nigeria, as that's where he's based. To concur with your card-playing metaphor, perhaps he went all-in too early with it.