Its becoming quite common:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/oct/16/email-hacker-identity-rowenna-davis

Western Union should get involved to catch these scammers, but do they care???

Not one jot Im guessing....

A bit like blaming roads for drunk driving...

i received the same exact message some time ago email from my teacher the only difference was that the city is  london , and  i just met her 2 hours ago, i said how did she became in london all of the sudden, did she time-travel or something, so i knew  that this is a scam  and by the way it is always hotmail.com or gmail.com the biggest attraction for scammers , the medieval system of bird messaging is more reliable then those two :D

I also received a similar email asking to transfer funds through Western Union. The language was not the language of my friend so I asked him to confirm where is was I had bumped into him in the mountains and to confirm his wif's name.

Thjis time the reply came back in German which we never converse in, giving his wife's name, apologising for not remembering where he had bumped in to each other but referring to a walk we had done together.  I assume the address was slightly different to his but I did not check it

In short the scammer had access to all his emails

What had happened was that he had replied to one of those emails which ask you to reregister before your account is closed and had divulged his password and the hacker had taken over his account.  

The moral

So many people do it - I was stopped a friend who was about to do so

Do not divulge your password to anybody even if it appears to be an offical request from google or Yahoo - they will never ask for your passport.

There is no way to stop this trhat i know of.  if people give their passwords to criminals, use will be made of them

It is not a question of stupidity or naivety it is more lack of concentration.  The only thing that could possibly be done is for new users of computers to be made aware of this.

I recently went on a basic course and no mention was made of this danger.

Thank you for highlighting this

Swisscom except it isn't

How many people have been conned into leaving Swisscom and joinuing Swissphone.  They phone Swisscom customers and garble the Swissphone bit so you think you are talking to Swisscom who is offering you fantastic deals.  Beware.  If ayou want cheap phone deals use your computer (Voipcheap or Skype for instance)

Not really Keith... since most email scams are perputrated via Western Union transfers, its millions a year (if you believe reports),and the easiest place to catch a scammer is at the point of money collection...

Im not saying WU are to blame, but there could be more rules and stringent regulation to aid in the easier capture of these people and to deter misuse of a money transfer system that clearly is a life-line for millions of people around the world, especially in the developing world.

Most web-based email -type accounts now can be set up with a two-step verification process which stops "unknown" computers from accessing your account without some further check by contacting you directly.  Eg gmail can be set in its account settings so that it recognises the computer/phone you normally access your account from.  An unknown computer can only access your account even if it has your password once a number sent to your phone by text message is input on the login screen.  Facebook has something similar.  Set these up once and the likelihood of your account being hijacked is much smaller becuase a hacker would need your user id, password, and access to your phone.

Ths is very useful. Does anyone know if yahoo has this service? I have not seen mention of it.

yz all 4 such useful info.  I certain learned many new things!

Yahoo doesnt do it yet.  Hotmail does, I believe.

Yahoo takes the other tack of stopping you from being duped into entering your password into a site which looks like yahoo but is actually a scam site.  The way they do it by making your log-in page personalised to your pc so that it shows a familiar colour and picture - any scam site could never know what you were expecting to see on your login page.  Its not as secure since you might forget to look for your picture but its a start:

https://protect.login.yahoo.com/

the easiest way to avoid problems is to assume anyone asking for money is some sort of scammer

..agreed, but actually what seems to be happening is much more insidious and time consuming - the person whose email account is compromised is the one sending out the requests for money to his/her friends so it seems much more legitimate.  The degree of personalisation by the hackers is what makes it all the more believeable; they are putting in the time to reply to messages etc.  Whatever, its clearly fooling people otherwise it wouldnt be happening.

  Notice,

There are arrears reckoned on your account over a period of 2010-2011 year.
You will find all calculations according to your financial debt, enclosed.
You have to pay out the debt by the 17 December 2011.

Sincerely,
Internal Revenue Service.