Hackers send bogus plea for money on Larga Baffin manager’s email account

Trudy Metcalfe-Coe, the longtime manager of Larga Baffin in Ottawa, says her email account was hacked, with a message sent out which asks recipients to send her money in England. The email says she was clubbed in London. Metcalfe-Coe, who has never visited England, was reached at Larga Baffin in Ottawa where she is working with police to alert her email contacts that her account was hacked, (FILE PHOTO)

Email hackers have sent a message out to more than 3,000 people using the Rogers email account of Trudy Metcalfe-Coe, who manages the Larga Baffin patient boarding home for Nunavut Inuit in Ottawa.

The message says: “Just writing to let you know our trip to England, with my family has been a mess. We were having a great time until last night when we got mugged and lost all my cash,credit card cellphone It has been a scary experience, I was hit at the back of my neck with a club. Anyway… I’m still alive and that’s whats important. I’m financially strapped right now and need your help. I need you to loan me some money, I’ll refund it to you as soon as i arrive home. Write me back so i can tell you how to get it to me.”

The message was sent out shortly after 9 a.m. Feb. 21.

“I’ve been hacked,” said Metcalfe-Coe, who was first alerted to the fraudulent request for money by friends in the Ottawa police department.

Working with the police, she plans to alert all her email contacts to tell them that her account was hacked, and that the message did not originate with her and to ignore it.

A second email was also sent out on her account at about 9:30 a.m., asking “are you willing to help or not???”

Metcalfe-Coe told Nunatsiaq News she has never even travelled to England.

Overall, online cyber-crime is on the rise in Canada. Last year, the Financial Post reported that Websense, the San Diego-based software company, ranked Canada as the world’s sixth most common source.