Thousands of people received scam e-mails and text messages when a well known Albany CPA's cell phone was hacked.
The scammer got into Will Geer's e-mail through his cell phone, and tried to cheat money out of all his contacts.
If you have a free e-mail account that can accessed on your phone, you could be vulnerable too
Even though it's an old scam, these crooks are pretty sophisticated.
They are targeting e-mail accounts by hacking through cell phones and Will Geer, even though on vacation and out of state, wants to warn you to protect your account.
Kathy Prisant has spent hours fixing Will Geer's personal e-mail account, making sure it is no longer compromised.
All of the thousands of contacts in his phone received a startling e-mail and text Thursday morning.
"The e-mail that everybody received was that Will was stranded in Spain and robbed and had no money, and needed financial assistance," said Prisants.
The scam e-mail requested his friends wire $1650 dollars to Spain. The hacker had taken over Geer's g-mail account, and was receiving his e-mails.
While taking back control of the account, Prisant found out free e-mail accounts like g-mail or yahoo are not secure.
"But I learned you have to ask for that additional coverage, to be truly protected," said Prisants.
All that takes is going to their website and requesting security protection, but most people don't know that.
They also found out that scammers are using e-mails to hack those accounts.
"Don't ever just when you get an e-mail that says, oh this is g-mail, and we need you to update your profile. Do not click on that link. Many times I'm told that's the first step for the hacker to be able to get in," said Prisants.
One of Geer's friends did fall for the scam and wired the money, but Western Union spotted the scam and stopped the transaction. Now they want to warn you to protect your e-mail accounts.
Another security tip if you get e-mail on a cell phone, use a complex password with upper and lower case letters, numbers, and exclamation marks and question marks.
Geer's office has been in contact with federal law enforcement but were told the scammer is likely in a foreign country, with little chance of being caught.
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