Be Wary of Email Fraud

Area residents are reporting several types of fraud to the Moorestown Police.

Acquaintance in Distress Fraud: An email will be received from a known acquaintance saying they are overseas, usually in England, and have been mugged or are in jail and need money wired to them. The email in the most recent case originated from Lagos, Nigeria.

In a case under investigation, the email address was obtained by hijacking a person’s email account and address book. The perpetrator then emails the contacts with the fraudulent request for money. The perpetrator usually hijacks an email account by sending an often innocuous email with an attachment containing a program, which, when opened, allows the perpetrator to take over the email account. Use caution when receiving emails from unknown sources asking you to open an attachment.

Grandchild Needs Bail Fraud: This fraud targets senior citizens. Usually a telephone call is made to the victim. The caller claims to be a grandchild who is in jail in Canada and needs bail money wired.

Fortunately, potential victims have either called the Police Department or other relatives to assist in confirming the legitimacy of the call before wiring money out of the country.

For more information, contact the Police Department 856-914-3041. Also visit fbi.gov/scams-safety/fraud for information about these and other fraud schemes.