An increasingly common online scam involves fake e-mails supposedly from a family member or friend who is traveling somewhere and needs to borrow money because they’ve run into trouble such as a traffic accident, illness, or arrest.

The scam hit the Panhandle Post-Double Q Country-KCOW-B-94.7 family today with an e-mail supposedly from one of our former colleagues…Misty Cheek Graham.

       In it, the scammer pretending to be Misty says she is in the Philippines for a program, lost her wallet and cell phone while sightseeing, and needs $1,800 because she can’t get her passport back from the hotel to leave until she pays her bill.

The e-mail is, of course, completely phony and Misty is just fine here in Nebraska. She says she first learned that someone had hacked into her e-mail account and Facebook page to get her contacts list when some of the targets of the scam got hold of her.

Graham was relieved that none of her friends or business contacts fell for the scam. She says some of them simply knew she wasn’t out of the country while for others some of the words, phrasing, and grammar in the e-mail raised red flags to them.

One of Graham’s biggest frustrations was that the hacker wiped out her contacts list and she couldn’t send out a mass e-mail to let everyone on it know what was going on.

She’s spent a good chunk of her day working IT individuals to put things back together. She says she’s going to follow their advice closely on how to prevent such problems in the future…such as having different passwords using letters and numerals on each account.

Law enforcement officials say you should never respond to such e-mails requesting money without some type of verification such as talking directly to the person asking for help if it’s someone you know or the use of pre-arranged code words confirming its legitimacy.

Here is the scam e-mail supposedly from Misty.

I really hope you get this fast. I could not inform anyone about our trip, because it was impromptu. we
        had to be in Manila, Philippines for a program. The program was successful, but our journey has turned
        sour. we misplaced our wallet and cell phone on our way back to the hotel we lodge in after we went
       for sight seeing. The wallet contained all the valuables we had. Now, our passport is in custody of the hotel      
       management pending when we make payment.

       I am sorry if i am inconveniencing you, but i have only very few people to run to now. i will be indeed very
       grateful if i can get a loan of $1,800 Usd from you. this will enable me sort our hotel bills and get my
       sorry self back home. I will really appreciate whatever you can afford in assisting me with. I promise to
       refund it in full as soon as I return. let me know if you can be of any assistance. Please, let me know
       soonest. Thanks so much..