'I've been mugged' scammer tries for $870 through Facebook: Hacker's theft attempt via chat function fails to fool local man, bu

Bryan Lemonds, branch manager with Raymond James Financial Services on Kirkwood Avenue, was logged onto Facebook this week when his friend Dan chimed in on the chat function.

"Dan" was in a "deep mess." He said he and his wife, Kelly, were stranded in Wales, in the United Kingdom, after having been "mugged at a gun point."

Lemonds has known Dan for 10 years, but hadn't spoken to him in a few months. Dan is a traveler, Lemonds said.

But, Lemonds said of his chatting buddy, "His spelling was atrocious." And when the chatter said he needed exactly $870 in cash wired to Western Union, Lemonds knew without a doubt what was going on.

Lemonds played along. He called Bloomington police, and an officer was hovering over Lemonds' computer witnessing the last 15 minutes of the chat, which lasted from 12:05 to 12:38 p.m. Tuesday.

"We were feeding questions to the guy to see how long we could keep him online."

The chatter knew Dan's daughter's name in addition to his wife's, but crumbled under Lemonds' questions about Dan's make of car and cell phone number. The scammer abruptly ended the chat.

To remove any doubt, Lemonds then called his friend Dan -- who was not in Wales and didn't need $870, not surprisingly.

Fortunately Lemonds understood someone had hacked into his friend's account, and spotted the scam early. Victims across the country have lost money in similar scams, Bloomington Police Department Lt. David Drake said.

Drake said local residents can and should report scams to Bloomington police when they have been defrauded of money. But when a Facebook or e-mail account user has simply had their account hacked or passwords changed, Drake admits there isn't much local police can do. The suspect trail in these scams often lead to overseas countries, he said, out of local jurisdiction. "This is an international problem," Drake said.

Detective Marty Deckard specializes in computer crimes, and had this week sent an e-mail to all officers advising them of recently reported scams. On Monday, a woman reported to BPD that a hacker changed her e-mail account passwords, Drake said.

Drake recommends the Internet Crime Complaint Center Web site, at www.ic3.gov, for tips on preventing Internet crime and also to file complaints. The center is a partnership between the FBI, the National White Collar Crime Center, and the Bureau of Justice Assistance.

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