Londonderry community worker's email account is hacked
A Londonderry community worker has been caught up in an email scam to con money out of good samaritans.
Jeannette Wark was contacted by friends on Monday who had apparently received an email from her asking for money.
The fraudulent email, sent from Mrs Wark's account, said she was in financial difficulties abroad and needed money to get home.
The PSNI have warned people to never give out financial or personal details via email.
Mrs Wark, who works in Derry's Fountain area, expressed concern that a hacker had taken over her email account.
"On Friday, I couldn't get into my hotmail account. It said the password I was giving was wrong," she said.
Mrs Wark said friends had since been contacted by someone impersonating her.
"I had a text from a friend in Cavan which was very strange. He asked me to give him my hotel address and I thought 'gosh what hotel am I supposed to be in'?"
"They're going through all my contacts and that's very worrying," she said.
A PSNI spokesperson said that people should make every effort to check that emails received are genuine before entering into any correspondence. They also suggest that someone in financial difficulties abroad is more likely to contact home by telephone rather than email.
Experts on the technology website Lifehacker recommend using a different password for each site you visit.
A strong password should consist of a combination of letters, numbers and symbols and should be more than eight characters long.