Email accounts of at least two Clark Lakers were recently hacked, and what followed was not good.  While this fraudulent activity may have targeted others, this website has learned of these two cases and has researched the details.  In one case the hack involved a business owner; in the second case, an individual.    Both individuals have Comcast email accounts.  For privacy reasons, their names are omitted in this article. 

The senario of the business person’s hack transpired in this way.  The hacker was able to get control of the account and began sending emails to the business person’s correspondents. The initial message, sent from the legitimate account was this:

Hi there,

I need a favor from you. Do you have amazon account? I’d appreciate if you could email me back asap.

Thanks

[followed by his name, phone number, etc., all appearing as the owner’s standard signature block]

When the correspondent replied to this email, the correspondent then received this message from a fake Yahoo account that looked real. 

Good to hear from you, Am trying to get an sephora E-code gift card for my cousin it’s his birthday but I don’t know what’s wrong with my amazon account it’s not going through and have called Amazon but it has not been resolved yet, can you please help me purchase an sephora E-code  gift card over there from your amazon account. Let me know if you could handle that so I can send you my cousin email so the E-code can be sent there and am only looking to spend $300 on it, I will refund you back as soon as possible.

[again the business owner’s standard signature block appeared]

At this point, the correspondent who received this mail did not reply to it, but called the business owner to alert him.  As it turned out, the business owner was painfully aware of the problem.  For example, one of his customers received an email about a transaction he and the owner had been discussing.  When the matter of cost came up, the hacker said any amount will do.  At that point, the customer realized he was not communicating with the business owner since this business owner actually does name a price for his services. 

The business owner’s solution to this was to call Comcast.  Comcast showed the owner how to turn off a forwarding function that had allowed the hacker to steal the account. 

The second case was similar.  This initial email came from a legitimate Comcast account:

May i ask you a favor, Do you have an Amazon account ?

THANKS

The correspondent who received this email realized it was the same hacker at work again and contacted the sender by phone. That call was not the first or last.  The Clark Laker had heard from at least 25 people.

The person who owns the address has contacted Comcast.  As of yesterday, the situation has not yet been resolved.