Another e-mail scam?

[jingjai]

Just received this e-mail:

Hope you are doing well, I am sorry i didn't inform you about my traveling to the United Kingdom, I am now in Oldham, UK. I was mugged at a gun point by robbers my little bag where i have my money and important documents has been stolen, Now i am really finding it difficult here, I need your your help..Kindly please loan me 2500pounds urgently to help me settle my hotel bills and fly back home, I had been to the embassy and also the Police station and they are currently looking into my case.

I had to walk to the public cafe to quickly send you this e-mail as i do not have access to any phone. I will appreciate any amount you can quickly arrange and send to me via Western Union with the details below.

Name...******* *******
Address: 45 West Street,
Oldham, OL1 1 XJ
United Kingdom

Please remember to send me full details of the transfer or scanned copy of the transfer receipt so that i can get he money here without any delay or problem. I will check my e-mail later.
******** *******

I've received two e-mails like this, the first one from an old friend (farang) saying he was in Scotland, lost his wallet, and needed 2700 pounds. I called him here in Thailand, he said the mail was bogus.
This second one is from a Thai Realtor I met briefly in Phuket. I called her, she said it was bogus, she has never even been to the UK.
Both people have one thing in common: my friend's wife goes into Thai chat rooms, etc. on their computer, so does the Realtor. I guess these sites can access your e-mail contacts?
I guess the lesson is don't let your wife or kids use your computer to go into their silly chat rooms, etc.

[BobHelm]

Interesting post JJ & not a scam that I have seen before.
it should (of course) be an impossible scam to commit as the individual picking up the money from Western Union should need to show proof positive that they are the named individual concerned. I was in a WU premises in the UK a couple of days ago & there is a clear message in that office that for any collections over £1,999 EXTRA proof of identity are necessary, rather than a single piece like a driving licence. However, sadly, just about every internet shop & 'pawn' shops I have seen around also provide western Union services.
The only way that this scam can possibly work is that someone in a Western Union agency is in collusion with the scammer. You may well be performing a public service if you forward the e-mails to Western Union (along with your investigations as to the identity of the sender). They may not be able to stop the spam messages but they should be capable (with a bit of common sense) to catch the people enabling the scam in one of their agencies in Oldham!!

[nkstan]

It is hard for me to imagine that anyone would just comply with this email without checking with the sender.They do say that they will check their email!

My first reaction would be to attempt to call by telephone and send email for confirmation.Plus,if It was a friend,I would probably want to hear more details or circumstance to see if I could help or suggest other avenues for solving the situation expediciously!

[jingjai]

I did telephone both of them, both of them were in Thailand.
The Thai Realtor said she knew nothing of the e-mail...so I forwarded it to her so she could read it and contact all the people on her mailing list.
By the time I go a hold of my farang friend, he already knew about it. But, he said one of his other friends, who lives in the States, sent some money . They are attempting to sort it out.

[plien]

Heard about this scam some 4 months ago, so it`s obviously been going on for some time. One would think that WU are well aware of it. I also got the advice to check before sending any money.
I can`t think of any friend that would ask me for that amount of money just to get by.