To view our videos, you need to
enable JavaScript. Learn how.
install Adobe Flash 9 or above. Install now.

Then come back here and refresh the page.

There I was minding my own business when this slithered into my email box: Dr. Naftali Garcia Berrill tells me he's traveling with his family in the U.K. A taxi accident has left them injured, hospitalized and in urgent need of my assistance.

Of course I responded “how can I help?”

The good doctor writes back that he needs me to send $1,200 dollars so he can pay the medical bills and book a flight home.

If I could go to my nearest Western Union and wire the money to him in London, he would be eternally grateful and, of course, pay me back.

“Not a problem,” I reply, but I asked, “are you sure you want me to wire it by Western Union? I've heard crooks use that to scam money. They might steal it before it even gets to you.”

“That’s the fastest way,” he replies. “Send it by Western Union and I will refund the money as soon as we get back home safely.”

I write “I know you'll pay me back, but I'm still worried about crooks intercepting it. How about if I just call the doctor and put it on my charge card?”

The answer? “The doctor says he is not accepting credit cards. Please wire the money.”

I respond, “Don’t worry—when I was a student you helped me. I'll just do a transfer from my account at MedTran of London.”

He writes back “no, wire the money. Have I asked you for help before?”

The doctor now acts like we have a history, perhaps teacher to student even though the closest I've ever been to med school was hitchhiking by a couple of them as a teenager.

So then I wrote back, “Great news. I contacted the Hokey Foundation’s Travelers Benevolent Association. They've agreed to come there and pay the bill. Tell me the hospital you are in?”

I think by this time he started to realize I was having fun spending my time—and wasting his—on a report to scam the scammer. So I emailed back one question: “How do you sleep at night?”

But the story isn’t over. There is a real Dr. Naftali Garcia Berill in New York, a noted forensic specialist who deals with criminals and the criminal mind—a man who was fit to be tied when I called him because he had received 90 inquiries from friends and relatives who received the scam letter.

He felt obliged to personally call each one and explain it was not him—just a crook who took his name and credentials. He's reported it to LinkedIn and the district attorney’s office.

Good luck finding the crook. He's probably sitting in a place like Nigeria doing the same scam to someone else.

I had some fun with this in order to give readers a glimpse inside a scam, but this is actually serious business. People have died after being lured in, coaxed overseas and tortured for their money.

If you are approached, forward the correspondence to a group of trade and law enforcement investigators at reportphishing@antiphishing.org.

I'm sending one more message to the crook who contacted me: a link to this story.