Is Shawnna Nixon in Trouble????

[pampered1224]

I go this e-mail this morning with Shawnna's e-mail address and as I am "in the know" about these e-mail/Western Union Scams, I decided to post. Also, as we all know Shawnna, I think you will find some key verbiage missing which makes me really think it is a scam.

"I'm writing this with tears in my eyes,my family and I came down here to Manila Philippines for a short vacation unfortunately we got mugged at the park of the hotel where we stayed,all cash,credit card and cell were stolen off us but luckily for us we still have our passports with us.

We've been to the embassy and the Police here but they're not helping the issues at all and our return flight leaves in few hours from now but we're having problems settling the hotel bills and the hotel manager won't let us leave until we settle the bills,

I'm freaked out at the moment and i need your urgent help.



Sincerely,

Shawnna Nixon

Check out my website: www.parnperedchef.biz/cookingwithshawnna


www.beautipage.com/shawmanixon"

Any thoughts or Shawnna - you out there?

 

[BethCooks4U]

Yes it's a scam. I've seen this before.Are you really close friends with her that she would pick you to request help from? Even if she's a close, close friend I would never send money until I checked with authorities.

 

[pampered1224]

Exactly Beth. They got her info here on Chef Success and no, I do not believe she would e-mail me personally. This is the very first e-mail of this kind I have ever gotten. But I knew it was fake. So if anyone else gets it, blow it off and do NOT fall for it.

 

[DebPC]

Hi John!
I've gotten a handful of these over the last year. None using someone from CS. They all have a similar script. Scam for sure.

 

[pampered1224]

Hi Deb!

I have to admit it shocked me at first because no, I have never seen one before but I knew it was not really her.

 

[pjpamchef]

I got one from a friend of mine stating she was in London with the same storyline. I had just talked to her the day before!! I called to make sure she hadn't flown off in the middle of the night...........
It is startling to read it until you realize it's a scam!!

 

[Shawnna]

Sorry guys...my email was hacked. I lost all of my emails from this year as well as all of my contacts. I sent out a disclaimer to all of my email contacts. If some of you received the email it must be because we have emailed each other at some point and I saved your contact info for some reason...perhaps we shared conference info or bought or sold something. I have changed my password. Hope that fixes it.

Sorry for any inconvenience.

Shawnna

 

[Sheila]

Dina Atnip must be with Shawnna! I got one from Dina a couple of days ago.

 

[The_Kitchen_Guy]

 

[nikked]

This particular hack is INSIDIOUS. First person I knew of was my step-mom. Lost all emails saved, everything in her inbox. And when I responded and said "you've been hacked", the hacker actually responded, continuing to pretend to be her. It was crazy! You may actually have to change your email address. It's a good warning to back EVERYTHING up, including your email, especially if you're like me and save just about EVERYTHING for future reference.

 

[NooraK]

More than just spam. This is an actual scam in an attempt to get money from the victims' friends.

 

[NooraK]

This particular hack is INSIDIOUS. First person I knew of was my step-mom. Lost all emails saved, everything in her inbox. And when I responded and said "you've been hacked", the hacker actually responded, continuing to pretend to be her. It was crazy! You may actually have to change your email address. It's a good warning to back EVERYTHING up, including your email, especially if you're like me and save just about EVERYTHING for future reference.

Another thing to look into is two step authentication. I know GMail offers it. Whenever I sign into my GMail using a new computer or device, the system sends me a text with a code I have to put in before I can finish logging in.

 

[Shawnna]

My friend replied to their email and they told her it was me and that they needed 2250.00. She told them she was sending the money to the police department and they could pick it up there. She then told them she had just text me and I was at home. She also told them she had reported them to the police. I sent out a dislaimer before I changed my password and nobody received them. I got several calls from friends across the country. After I changed my password I sent another disclaimer.

This is a scam to get money.

 

[pampered1224]

Shawnna this is not your fault. I just hate that someone was able to do that too you though.

 

[CookinWithLynda]

Hands down best advice from a cop after my college age son was scammed into sending money via Western Union - NEVER do it for any reason, for any person and tell as any people you know NOT to ever do it either. If it's a real situation, you friend/family member would CALL you. My son was looking for a roommate, on his university's housing site, and an interested person's father 'accidently' sent money for the deposit and a car in one check - "could he just wire the money once it cleared to Virginia where the car was being held". Lesson Learned - even though the money shows as available in your account doesn't mean the check cleared and you can wire that money to someone!!! He was trying to work finding a new roommate out on his own, but as soon as he showed me the first e-mail, after the fact unfortunately, I knew it was BAD. He felt so embarrassed and was so upset. The cop did say that sometimes they would be interested in setting it up to try and catch someone though.

 

[Sheila]

Shawnna, glad your friends were smart enough to NOT fall for it!

 

[Sheila]

I'd already heard of the scam, but even if I hadn't have heard of it before I received the e-mail from Dina's account 2 days after I knew that Dina had just been here in Dallas for FEAST. I knew there was no way that she'd already driven home, flown to the Philippines and gotten mugged on vacation. I responded to her e-mail (no response back from spammers thank goodness) and sent her a message on FB as a follow up too. Just to make sure she got the message.

 

[The_Kitchen_Guy]

A few years ago, some elderly friends of mine got a frantic phone call from their grandson. He was supposedly in Windsor, across the river from Detroit. The caller, who sounded close enough to be passable as their grandson, said he had been detained by Canadian authorities because he had left his passport, driver's license and (of course) cash in his hotel room in Detroit. He needed them to wire some large, but not unbelievable, amount of money via Western Union to throw his bail. Grandpa went to the Western Union office to wire the money. There were problems at the Western Union office, they were unable to process the wire transfer. I have no idea what the "technical problem" was, but I like to think the operator thought the whole thing sounded suspicious and was giving him the runaround, hoping he'd come to his senses. His wife called me (it was late on a Saturday evening and I was the only one home, I guess) and she was trying to frantically tell me the story. I had to get her to take a deep breath and count to 10. Ironically, I had spoken with their grandson a day earlier, he had tickets to the Brewers game that Saturday and was looking forward to it. There was no way he could have been at the ball game, driven to Detroit to check into a hotel, and then get arrested in Windsor.Luckily, we were able to reach Grandpa before he wired the money from another Western Union office.Scammers are everywhere, they're clever, they have believable stories and if they weren't successful, they wouldn't keep trying it.

 

[Sheila]

Dang! Good thing he didn't get the transfer done before he figured out it was a scam. That's scary!

 

[Admin Greg]

I just got this scam email from a "Carolyn Hooper"

 

[gailz2]

Dina Atnip must be with Shawnna! I got one from Dina a couple of days ago.

I also received one from Dina.

 

[adevincenzo]

Sadly this is happening all the time. My friend does computer forensics and she went as far as to track down where one SPAM email was coming from and where it was started. After she told me, I remembered a big huge bust about a year ago for scammers that scammed over a billion dollars from the America people by making threatening phone calls to them, their friends and families. These ding dongs are trying to get money any which way they can.

 

[The_Kitchen_Guy]

If it didn't work, they wouldn't do it.