Courtesy of Florence Klein, Founder, SilverPlanet.com

Here's an email a friend of mine recently received. How would you react if a friend sent an email like this?

I'm sorry if this gets to you too sudden,it had to come in a hurry due to the urgency of the situation.Presently,Joan and I are stuck in England and need help getting home,we were robbed ,all cash , cards and cell phones were taken at gunpoint. it was a terrible experience. Right now,we need help with flying back home.I've been to the embassy and the Police here but they're not helping issues at all.the good thing is We still have our passports .We just don't have enough cash to sort the hotel bills and get our flight tickets ,Please I need you to loan me some cash(need about $850 .will appreciate whatever you can help with for now),promise to refund you as soon as we get back in a couple of days. you can have it wired to me via Western Union.please let me know if this is okay with you so i can give you the wiring details

waiting to hear from you

John & Joan Carson

Naturally, you'd like to help. You might even overlook the obvious signs of a scam—the misspellings, the poor punctuation, the need-it-now sense of urgency—giving your friends the benefit of the doubt amidst difficult circumstances. You might even rush right over to Western Union and wire the requested funds.

Don't do it.

Take a moment to reflect on what the FBI has to say about this new scam:

The IC3 (Internet Crime Complaint Center) continues to receive reports of individuals' e-mail or social networking accounts being compromised and used in a social engineering scam to swindle consumers out of thousands of dollars. Portraying to be the victim, the hacker uses the victim's account to send a notice to their contacts. The notice claims the victim is in immediate need of money due to being robbed of their credit cards, passport, money, and cell phone; leaving them stranded in London or some other location. Some claim they only have a few days to pay their hotel bill and promise to reimburse upon their return home. A sense of urgency to help their friend/contact may cause the recipient to fail to validate the claim, increasing the likelihood of them falling for this scam.

If you receive a similar notice and are not sure it is a scam, you should always verify the information before sending any money.

If you have been a victim of this type of scam or any other Cyber crime, you can report it to the IC3 Web site. The IC3 complaint database links complaints for potential referral to the appropriate law enforcement agency for case consideration. Complaint information is also used to identity emerging trends and patterns.