I just wanted to warn people about a new scam on the internet involving email.

This one involves getting an email from a familiar person—someone who you may have exchanged dozens of emails with—claiming that they are stuck in a foreign country (this one was France) and that all of their money, identification, credit cards, cell phones, return plane tickets, and the like were destroyed when a fire burned their hotel smack dab to the ground.

Now their only means of communication is email, and they desperately need you to send them a couple of thousand Euros (Pounds, Drachmas, Rupees, Dinars, Yuan, Krona, Pula, or Rubles) or some other equivalent of two or three thousand US dollars so that they can just return home.  Of course they absolutely promise to repay you the instant they step off the flight back to the good old USA.

So…if any of you even begin to fall for this scam, PLEASE, just send the money to me.  I’ll handle all the transactions for you, and absolutely guarantee to return 90% of this “loan” back to you.  (I’ll keep a very reasonable 10% as a “tutelage fee” for teaching you “How NOT to be a Sucker” after I prove to you that your acquaintance is safe and sound and it was all a big LIE!!!)