This story is near and dear to me.  One day I went into a frenzy, because a good friend sent me an email that she was stranded in Ghana and needed me to send her some money.  She never mentioned she was going to Ghana.  I was taken off guard at first, because I had a couple of other friends who had gone to Ghana to work, about the same time. Common sense came to my rescue again. I finally collected my thoughts and called my friend’s boyfriend. He confirmed my friend’s Gmail account was hijacked and she was safe at home in New Jersey.  It only goes to show email administrators must constantly remind our email users not to open email from unknown people.

Recently several readers contacted the News Sentinel to report they were victims of a scheme who had received emails from friends or associates claiming to be stranded overseas and asking for money.

The name and email accounts used were supposedly from known friends of victims. The accounts were used by scammers who sent the “stranded overseas” appeal to make the victims think friends they knew were really stranded and had no money.

Stacie Bohanan, spokeswoman for the Knoxville office of the FBI, said the broken into email accounts were infected by a virus and not “hacked” by an imposter targeting a specific individual. Bohanan said the FBI has been investigating this case.

Jason Pack, special agent with the FBI’s national press office, said the scam is “cyclical” and often runs through various communities as it picks up the contacts shared by local email accounts .

The emails, which appear to come from a friend or associate stranded overseas, are written in a chatty, familiar style and closed with the name of the person whose email account was hijacked.

Victims of the scam need to report it to U.S. government’s The Internet Crime Complaint Center, online at www.ic3.gov .

Bohanan warned that a similar virus claims your credit card account may have been compromised and directs readers to phone the company.

“Do not call that number,” Bohanan said. To check with your credit card company, call only the number listed on the back of your card, she added.