But as it is true that it’s been most helpful in business, education or even in our daily lives, it also poses potential danger, once put in the hands of inane perpetrators.

I’ve tackled the issue of cyber perverts, unethical chatters and such. But a few days ago, I was once again a victim of another cyber crime. My "Ate" called me up and here went that conversation:

"Ay Jaye, I just called pano si Tita Dolly tumawag sakin. Siya daw kasi and Tita Fe from Chicago and apparently all our relatives in our egroups got an email "daw" from you saying you were stranded somewhere in Holland and asking them for 00 para makauwi." What?? Tsk. Tsk. I immediately explained to my Ate that I, of course had been home for a week now and didn’t recall having emailed anyone to send me shopping money or rescue me from Beijing where I just recently came back from, ha, ha. Obviously, this was a case of email fraud or those forwarded seemingly templated emails circulating like SPAM . Check out this note I got on my Facebook account:

August 22, 2008

Hi Jaye, you don’t know me, but I got an email from supposedly from you (we’re probably vaguely connected through either family (lola is a Bautista, or advertising or something) and it said you were stranded in Holland and needed 00 from me. Odd, right? I think someone may have broken into your email account, are you also known as "astralgugurl@yahoo" ? Anyway, just wanted to sound that off. Thanks.

I immediately replied…

Hi Gary;

Thank you for writing in. My sister has received so many calls from our relatives (you may be a part of this bote egroups) asking if it was true that I was in Holland and stranded as you said.

Funny thing but I received a similar email from someone in my Yahoo Addresses contacts list:

An Emergency Please

Wednesday, August 13, 2008 12:12 PM

From: This sender is DomainKeys verified "marlon bonife" <marlonbonife@yahoo.com>

Add sender to Contacts

To:

marlonbonife@yahoo.com

Am in a hurry writing you this note,Just wanted to seek your help on something very important, you are the only person i could reach at this point, and i hope you come to my aid. Because something very terrible is happening to me now,ineed a favor from you now,I had a trip here in Holland

Unfortunately for me all my money got stolen on my way to the hotel where i lodged along with my bag were my passport was, and since then i have been without any money i am even owing the hotel here.

So i have limited access to emails for now, please i need you to lend me about 1,500 so i can make arrangements and return back please, i have spoken to the embassy here but they are not responding to the matter effectively, I will return the money back to you as soon as i get home, I am so confused right now.

I will be waiting to hear from you.

Best Regards

Marlon

As you can see, this is an obvious case of email fraud and scamming.

Please ignore. I just can’t believe how some people can find the time to do such things.

God Bless

Jaye who just got back from Beijing and not stranded somewhere in Holland.... tsk tsk

A few days before, I received this note again in my other email address (I have several, just like most people):

Re: TR: An Emergency Please

Saturday, August 23, 2008 7:57 PM

From: This sender is DomainKeys verified "Jakes Maniquis" <______@yahoo.com>View contact details

To: "Jérôme Chazal" <chazal.jerome@______.fr>, "Jeanette Bautista" <_____@yahoo.com>

Dearest Ats, This is a scam, please ignore, Jeanette is here in the Philippines and her email addresses are the ones I listed here. In fact, Tita Dolly Coronel called me about this, too. Please do ignore. Thanks and take care. Jakes--- On Sat, 8/23/08, Jérôme Chazal <chazal.jerome@____ > wrote:From: Jérôme Chazal <chazal.jerome>Subject: TR: An Emergency PleaseTo: jakesbote@yahoo.comDate: Saturday, August 23, 2008, 10:59 PM

Dearest Jakes, I’m forwarding a very weird message that supposedly came from Jeannette’s email address. Weird because it’s been addressed to a lot but unknown and no signature. Have you got any idea what this is all about? Love you, Ats De : bautista jaye [mailto:astralgudgurl@yahoo.com] Envoyé : vendredi 22 août 2008 12:03À : astralgudgurl@yahoo.comObjet : An Emergency PleaseAm in a hurry writing you this note,Just wanted to seek your help on something very important, you are the only person i could reach at this point, and i hope you come to my aid. Because something very terrible is happening to me now, ineed a favor from you now,I had a trip here in Holland...