Cheats on the mail....beware of them !!

Recently I received a mail from a very good friend of mine, reading: "You probably received a message from me claiming to have used the product by jaxtr and hence recommending it to you. Well the Jaxtr agency seems to have got your address from my address book and has used it to promote its own product. This being rather unethical, I suggest you delete anything to do with Jaxtr to be safe. Sorry to have burdened you with this bit of hi tech prankism". It is nice of him to have informed me of such a fraud through his personal e:mail address. The referred mail did reach me and I did not respond to it as I knew that my friend will not recommend any such thing without asking. This is the second mail that had come to me from a known e:mail address, but asking me to do something that my friend will not ask me to do anytime.

A month ago I received a mail from a professor whom I know. That read: "I am in a hurry writing you this message, i don't have much time on the pc here, so i have to brief you my present situation which requires your urgent response. Actually, I had a trip to Malaysia for a program called "Empowering Youth to Fight Racism, HIV/AIDS, Poverty and Lack of Education, the program is taking place in three major countries in Asia which are Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia. But unfortunately for me, my little bag where my money, phone, passport and other valuable things got stolen at the hotel where i lodged due to a robbery incident that happened in the hotel. I have been so restless since last night, the present condition that i found myself is very hard for me to explain, I am really stranded here because i have been without any money, i am even owing the hotel here as well, moreover the Hotel's telephone lines here got disconnected by the robbers and they are trying to get them fixed back. I have access to only emails at the library because they also took my cell phone which i have all my contacts. I am now owing a hotel bill of $1,500 usd and they wanted me to pay the bill soon. I need this help from you urgently to help me back home, I need you to help me with the hotel bill and i will also need $2,000 to feed and help myself back home. So please can you help me with a sum of $3,500 USD to sort out my problems here. I am sending you this email from the city Library, I will appreciate what so ever you can afford to send me for now and I promise to pay back your money as soon as i return home. So please go ahead and send the money to me through Western Union money transfer because that is the only way i could be able to get it fast and leave. These are the details below....

Name: Dr............
Address: ... Jalan Loke Yew, Bandar Melaka, Malaysia

After you have send the money, email to me the western union money transfer control number or you can attach and forward to me the western union money transfer receipt so that i can pick up the money fast and leave.

Hope to hear from you soon. The embassy here has already promised to give me a covering traveling papers that i will need to have my way back home, all i need right now is the money to settle up the bills and leave.

Thanks and get back to me soon."

On seeing the mail I smelt the "rat"...the numbers did not match. The language was not the Professor's. Something was "fishy".

These kinds appear to be new frauds in the net (or am I getting exposed to them rather late ?); we are of course used to "winning lottery", "your account number for depositing millions of dollars", etc.

Many of us would have been cheated or attempted to have been cheated. Can we share them and learn from each other?