ST. LOUIS (AP) — A Missouri woman was tricked into wiring about $4,000 to someone in England after receiving faked messages from a friend on Facebook asking for help, police said Wednesday.
Jayne Scherrman of Cape Girardeau wired the money through Western Union after receiving what she believed were several requests for help from her friend, Sgt. Jason Selzer said.
Police were notified about the scam on Aug. 26, Selzer said. They believe someone took over the Facebook account of a Cape Girardeau County resident, Grace Parry, changed the password so she couldn't access it and sent out messages saying she and her husband had been detained in London and needed money.
Scherrman received several requests for help Aug. 25 and 26, and was also called by a man with a British accent who pretended to be an immigration official, Selzer said.
"He said the woman (Parry) and her husband were being detained and that more money was needed to fly them home," Selzer said. "She sent three different wire transfers to London."
Parry said the experience has been painful.
"I not only felt angry, but violated," she told the Southeast Missourian newspaper. She worried that whoever hacked into her computer might also come to her door.
Parry, who hadn't traveled to England, tried to access her account to warn other friends but couldn't. She suspended the account, and her husband posted warnings about the scam.
Parry and Scherrman did not immediately return phone messages seeking comment Wednesday from The Associated Press.
Selzer said it's unlikely the woman who was scammed will get her money back.
He said people should remember to change their passwords often and to be careful about posting personal information.
Palo Alto, California-based Facebook said Internet schemes like this one aren't uncommon. Facebook has systems to detect suspicious behavior tied to compromised accounts and blocks it when it possible, company spokesman Simon Axten wrote in an e-mail.
"We're also working with law enforcement and with Western Union (a wire transfer company commonly used by the scammers) to investigate specific cases and improve education," he wrote.
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