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As the holiday season closes in, some cyber crooks are changing their tack - and trying old fashioned sob stories to milk money from their victims.
This Eastern bloc Christmas cracker works in a similar way to Nigerian 419 scams, where victims answer an email, a dialogue is opened and the money is gradually extracted.
Many have a banter that'd make Del Boy jealous, and use it to gain confidence - and surprisingly, ordinarily intelligent people fall for these cons in their droves.
A warning against these tales of woe comes from internet content security provider Marshal as its TRACE threat research team have noticed a rapidly growing number of messages referring to abject poverty in the least glamorous corners of Eastern Europe.
The email will feature tear-jerking illness, probably a young child, and the tale of a whole family forced to live in a one-room house - there's often a workplace accident or a factory closing to make things even worse.
Some of the writers could have a career in the book world, were they not busily trying to rip people off.
They will outline just how much the email recipient could help just by donating a few basic things like warm clothes, blankets, old shoes or vitamins - or if it would be easier than sending a care package...wait for it...a cash donation by online transfer would be fine.
"It is no coincidence that these emails are appearing in the lead-up to Christmas," says Bradley Anstis, VP Products for Marshal.
"Many people feel especially charitable and giving at this time of the year. The scammers are no doubt either trying to appeal to people's good will or guilt them into feeling sorry for the individual described in the story. Question these kinds of emails very closely,"
"The Nigerian 419 scams prey on people's greed and gullibility to manipulate you into giving them money. This new scam takes a different approach by tugging on your heartstrings, but it is essentially the same idea - get people to believe in your story and send you money."
Many of the messages that the TRACE team has intercepted have come from servers in France, not the poorest parts of Russia, as some of emails claim.
Anstis advises recipients to ignore and delete any type of unsolicited email should it slide into your inbox.
"If you feel compelled to make a donation," he said, "get in touch with a legitimate, trustworthy charitable organisation that can get your money where it is most needed, not financing some distant conman's lifestyle."
Some sure-fire signs that a cyber conman is having a go include:
- the email is addressed in the bcc line of the message
- the sender apologises for making contact with you
- they 'found' your address on the internet, but won't say where
- the story sounds too exaggerated to be plausible
- blessings are heaped on the recipient
