mails with IDs derived from seemingly known persons seeking urgent monetary help or announcement of lottery winners with millions in cash have increased during the holiday season. The tricksters derive the e-mail IDs by choosing from a contact list of a person's e-mail account. They write “urgent message” to give an impression to the recipient that his colleague, friend or relative was direly in need of financial assistance while on a vacation abroad. Syed Atique, an automobile engineer, received one such e-mail, purportedly sent by his colleague now on vacation in London. Atique at first believed the e-mail and contacted his friend in London on his roaming mobile phone and found that everything was normal. He said he was shocked to receive the e-mail that goes like this (sic) “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 will come to my aid. Because something very terrible is happening to me now, I need a favor from you now, I had a trip here in UK on a mission.” Atique said he grew curious when he read the second and third paragraphs of the e-mail that said: “Unfortunately for me all my money got stolen on my way to the hotel where I lodged along with my bag which had my passport as well. And since then I have been without any money I am even owing the hotel here. “…So I have limited access to e-mails for now, please I need you to lend me about 900 pounds 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. Regards.” It was then Atique said he immediately called his friend in London and found everything was all right with him. Atique is not alone to have received such an e-mail. Imran Pasha Khan, a lab technician, was encouraged after seeing a similar e-mail that attracted his attention to a huge sum of money that according to the e-mail he (Khan) won through an international lottery registered in the UK. Khan said as no contact numbers were mentioned in the e-mail and he started corresponding through e-mails. The amount of money was in six digit form “and that was so attractive that at one point I was about to deposit the required amount (as a precondition to claim the prize money) in the given bank account,” Khan said. Khan was lucky to have met one of his friends who alerted him about such fraudulent e-mails. “In my final e-mail I demanded the party to send me a copy of the lottery papers attested by the Indian embassy in UK. The correspondence abruptly stopped and I was saved from being cheated,” he said. The practice of fake e-mails was rampant in late 1990s when a number of Saudis were robbed of their money after receiving e-mails largely from Nigeria, Holland and the UK with seemingly plausible stories of inherited bounties. To give credence to the stories the e-mails even used big names such as from government dignitaries, ex-ministers or renowned businessmen. The legal department of Riyadh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (RCCI) at that time had to intervene to create awareness among the people to avoid falling into such a trap. Muhammad Al-Haidan, Director of the RCCI legal department, even lodged complaints in embassies of the countries from where the e-mails were linked. The RCCI efforts had paid off and the circulation of fraudulent e-mails was remarkably reduced. The increased level of awareness among the people against fraudulent e-mails helped and they paid no attention to them as and when they received them in their mail boxes.
