THEBACHA/FORT SMITH - A Fort Smith woman was recently a victim of Internet identity theft.

However, scammers did not target her for money. Instead, they tried - unsuccessfully - to obtain money from people in the contact list of her e-mail account.

Hackers broke into Milly Steed's email account. Using the Fort Smith senior's contact list the culprits attempted to defraud Steed's friends out of money. The fraudulent emails claimed Steed was injured in Wales and needed money. - Ian Vaydik/photo illustration

On Sept. 20, about 30 people on Milly Steed's contact list received an e-mail telling a distressing, but completely false story.

According to the e-mail, the author claims Steed was writing "with tears in my eyes" after being mugged on a short vacation in Wales and having her cash, credit card and cell phone stolen.

Of course, the e-mail ended with the inevitable request for money - $750 - to settle a hotel bill.

The scam has left Steed, a 72-year-old senior, shaken and upset.

"It's very scary," she said of losing control of her e-mail account.

"They compromised my contact list. I could not get back on the contact list to tell everybody it was wrong," she said, explaining her password didn't work any longer nor could she change the password.

"I couldn't get into my contacts at all, no way," Steed said. "My friend from Edmonton was quite upset and she sent me an e-mail which I couldn't get. They (the scammers) got her e-mail and they e-mailed her back saying, yes, I've got a broken arm and so and so. They went on a big spiel."

The e-mail from the scammers to the Edmonton woman also gave instructions on how to send money to Wales by the Western Union money transfer service.

However, most people on the contact list immediately recognized the request for money was a scam.

"The people I e-mailed quite often, those people knew right away," Steed said. "Like our friends phoned from Calgary and they laughed. They said, 'My gosh, Milly, it doesn't even sound like you.'"

They might have been referring to the last line of the e-mail which read, "I'm freaked out at the moment."

Steed has no idea how the scammers got such complete control of her e-mail account.

None of the 30 people in her contact list sent money.

"They checked with me first, but there were two that were quite upset," she said, adding some believed she may have been hurt in a mugging.

In all, she got about 15 telephone calls from people on her contact list.

Steed and her husband, Harold Steed, are now a little bit more leery of using the computer.

"I told Milly to throw that damn computer in the garbage," Harold Steed said.

They now have a new e-mail address.

Milly Steed said she reported the incident to the police, but was told there was nothing they could do.

Const. Brent MacDonald of the commercial crime section with the RCMP's 'G' Division in Yellowknife, said he has previously heard of such e-mail scams in other parts of Canada, but never before using the name of an NWT resident.

"It's the first I've heard of it," he said. "I'm not saying that it hasn't happened."

Similar scams have been around for five or six years in Canada, he said. "It's starting to filter its way up a little bit farther north."

MacDonald said, if people receive such an e-mail, they should never answer it and never send money.

"The proper steps would be just to completely ignore them and don't reply to them," he said.

MacDonald suggested recipients of such e-mails ask themselves a question: "If this person was really in trouble, would you be the person that she would contact? Probably not, right? You wouldn't contact her for $750. You'd contact a closer friend or a family member."

In general, the constable said people should be very careful with personal information they put online.

MacDonald also advised people to report scams to the police, although he said it is very hard to determine who the culprits are or even in which country they are located. "So that's where it becomes very difficult to actually prosecute somebody in the court of law in Canada because we can't pinpoint who the bad guy is or where the bad guy is."

The constable also advised anyone receiving a scam e-mail to report it to the Canadian anti-fraud centre www.phonebusters.com.

Information on the website reveals the scam involving Milly Steed is an Internet adaptation of the so-called emergency scam, a telephone fraud that has been around for years. It is also sometimes called the grandparent scam because grandparents are often contacted by the fraudsters.

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