Am I in danger after responding to a scam email?

Question

I got a scam email a few days ago from a "lawyer" that says that his customer died with his family in a car accident and that since I have the same last name I should represent the deseased. I responded that I was interested and then I got a response back that told me to give them information. I then used an excuse that I didn't understand and that they should send me more info. Am I in danger now? Can they get ANY information about me from my emails? I used a fake name but I haven't sent them anything other than emails. Can they find me now or can they get information???

I'm terrified, please answer.

Answer 1

100% scam.



There is no banker at some overseas bank who suddenly found a dormant account with millions yet can't find a single relative of the account owner who managed to die suddenly in a plane/train/car accident or whatever natural disaster was just on the world news and didn't leave a will. Now this highly educated executive who writes like an 8 year old, must have a foreign partner to help him move this newly discovered wealth to any bank in any other country before his government seizes the cash.



There is only one scammer trying to steal your hard-earned money by using a fake story, stolen pictures, stolen information on a natural disaster and copied links from a legit website, all while pretending to be several different people all with free email addresses.



The next email was from one of the scammer's fake names and free email addresses pretending to be the "minister/banker/barrister" and has demanded you pay for made-up money transfer, document, certificate, stamp and bank fees, in cash, and only by Western Union or moneygram.



Western Union and moneygram do not verify anything on the form the sender fills out, not the name, not the street address, not the country, not even the gender of the receiver, it all means absolutely nothing. The clerk will not bother to check ID and will simply hand off your cash to whomever walks in the door with the MTCN# and question/answer. Neither company will tell the sender who picked up the cash, at what store location or even in what country your money walked out the door. Neither company has any kind of refund policy, money sent is money gone forever.



Now that you have responded to a scammer, you are on his 'potential sucker' list, he will try again to separate you from your cash. He will send you more emails from his other free email addresses using another of his fake names with all kinds of stories of great jobs, lottery winnings, millions in the bank and desperate, lonely, sexy singles. He will sell your email address to all his scamming buddies who will also send you dozens of fake emails all with the exact same goal, you sending them your cash via Western Union or moneygram.



You could post up the email address and the emails themselves that the scammer is using, it will help make your post more googlable for other suspicious potential victims to find when looking for information.



Do you know how to check the header of a received email? If not, you could google for information. Being able to read the header to determine the geographic location an email originated from will help you weed out the most obvious scams and scammers. Then delete and block that scammer. Don't bother to tell him that you know he is a scammer, it isn't worth your effort. He has one job in life, convincing victims to send him their hard-earned cash.



Whenever suspicious or just plain curious, google everything, website addresses, names used, companies mentioned, phone numbers given, all email addresses, even sentences from the emails as you might be unpleasantly surprised at what you find already posted online. You can also post/ask here and every scam-warner-anti-fraud-busting site you can find before taking a chance and losing money to a scammer.



If you google "fake next-of-kin scam", "fraud inheritance bank Western Union scam", "fake Ghana refugee scam", "fraud romance scammer" or something similar you will find hundreds of posts from victims and near-victims of this type of scam.

Answer 2

Don't worry, you did not divulge any personal information which they are after. The scam works by making you think you are to inherit a large sum of money, so they gather all your personal details (pretending you have to prove who you are) and then your bank account details (so they can pay the money into your account). Armed with this information, a person pretending to be yourself then goes into your bank, wants to withdraw a large amount of money, but has lost their card. So they produce a whole load of fake ID created from the details you give them, and drain your bank account. And the sting is that the person cannot even claim compensation becasue you willingly gave all your details to them. Luckily you cottoned on to them in time and gave them no information. You could change your password and security settings to secure your computer ID, but it should be fine otherwise.

Answer 3

Update your virus checker, get off line and do a full scan.

When you replied you downloaded and activated a viurs. Alert your bank if you have EVER used that computer for banking or shopping - any card number ever used is at risk.

Stop your cards and request replacements.

Answer 4

This is referred to as a 419 rip-off after the component of the Nigerian authorized code making it unlawful. The internet is nothing new to Nigerian scammers. They have been handwriting, later typing, then faxing and now emailing identical rip-off mail due to the fact that at least the 1890's. The one twist right here is that it's someone pretending to be Zimbabwean alternatively than Nigerian. The basic scam proposal is that he can motive the "security corporation" to switch the enormous pile of cash into an account in a stable banking process. But... Regrettably, he has no such account and no access to open one. But... If handiest YOU, who do, would conform to receive his money for him, he would have it transferred and would ecstatically pay you a very handsome price for doing so. Nevertheless, you get strung alongside, might be for months if particularly gullible. First, the "security organization" requires a cost. It have to come from the switch account: your account. He has nothing, however should you would simply pay the price, he offers you a good bigger cost than he would have earlier than. Please just right sir or ma'am! Then he have got to worry that you are going to just hold it all. Good, he need to hazard it. But he would like to switch it out quickly once it is to your account. (LOL, to the place? Finally, if he had an account to transfer it quickly out to, why does he want you? Good, yes good sir or ma'am, however he is not as stringent because the "security corporation" and does not intellect transferring it into a dicy financial institution in (the place was it? Oh yeah...) Thailand. Sure, you might do the transfer, but he knows methods to do it and would rather feel first-class no longer bothering you toooo much. If you would just provide him your on-line user identify and password, he'll manage that part of it. You are actually out the fee (many times a really gullible individual can pay a WHOPPING fee). A minute or two after giving the user title/password out, you are out your whole account's money as well. Commonly extra fees and, good, yes just right sir or ma'am, one ought to unfortunately acknowledge they are particularly bribes, maybe a number of more are needed before the transfer. In the event you on no account supply out the user name/password, they write checks for varying quantities drawn on the account whose know-how you provide. By the point you appreciate something like that has happened, the accounts they have been deposited to were emptied and also you find the genial bank you might be used to is an awfully one-of-a-kind and beastly animal when they can not just claw the money again out of the system, one that's different ample they inform you to pursue the money from the criminal, in courtroom, and to not bother them additional. Of direction, it might be your school janitor who sent the e-mail. It need not be an actual Zimbabwean. In a general sense, to be capable to recognize other scams in lifestyles, observe the "button pushing" the author does in the "story" part of the email. The high-quality example is "My father was accused of aiding the White farmers" which indicates just what a exclusive man his poppy was. He was serving to whites and used to be murdered for it! What bigger calling might a man, principally a black man, have had? Button, button, who's pushing the button? Constantly be careful to begin with after which extra in order a story you are being informed begins to hit closer and toward house. But just as some criminals have to be let go to uphold legal principles that preserve legislation-abiding residents from abuse by way of a executive, the arena's electronic mail approach ought to be open adequate that scum like this may try to rip us off to ensure that us all to have convenient and free (within the feel of open, no longer in the experience of it by hook or by crook not costing something!) access to the world via electronic mail.

Answer 5

Never answer those question you should buy those websecure things at bestbuy and put in your computer/ipod/phone/tab because that happen to me b4 so they took my information and sent it too everyone so you may be in danger

Answer 6

If you don't provide personal details you aren't in danger. You will just start getting loads more of these type of emails

Answer 7

nah ! sending emails. that is all those losers can do anyway lol. dont worry.



Not falling in to those fake emails are very typical among internet users these days. cant believe you fell for it