An eastern Iowa man is warning his on-line pals he’s been the subject of an e-mail hoax. Clinton County Conservation Board Naturalist Chuck Jacobsen says his Yahoo e-mail account apparently was compromised and an e-mail was sent to everyone in his address book.
The message claimed Jacobsen was stuck in Nigeria with no money and asked for his friends and work colleagues to send him money there. Jacobsen found out about the e-mail hoax when he started getting e-mail responses. "Some of them were concerned people, but for the most part they were like, ‘Hey, this is going on and we just want you to know about it,’ and realized it was nothing that I did," Jacobsen says.
Jacobsen has filed a fraud report with Yahoo, but Jacobsen says he believes none of the people in his e-mail address book have fallen for the scam. The number of Americans who’ve lodged formal complaints with the Federal Trade Commission over Nigerian scams has skyrocketed and experts estimate people paid nearly 200-million dollars last year into Nigerian accounts connected to such scams.
The Tennessee woman accused of murdering her husband, who was a pastor, reportedly had fallen prey to a Nigerian hoax — creating tension in her marriage.