Spam?

Have you ever gotten one of those emails where the person pretends to know you and goes on to tell you that he/she is stuck someplace and they need you send money?

I get them every so often.

This past weekend, both Kyle and I received the following email:

It was "from" my brother-in-law

Subject: possibly stranded in Charlotte

Please call Mom and have her see if Tim can hook us up on us air. We are going to miss our flight from Charlotte to albany today. Have her ask him what he can book us on for tomorrow early morning. Email us back please. Thanks! Love you. 

Kyle and I talked about this email for a good 30 minutes. 

Is it real? 

Gosh, these spammers are getting good. 

How did they know to use Tim? "Tim is a real person in our family." 

If it really is my sister-in-law, why would they be stuck in Charlotte? 

They have money and should be able to purchase a ticket home. 

They are in the US and don't need passports.

Finally Kyle decided to call his sister.

And yes in deed, it was a real email.

Turns out they were in the Bahamas for the past week and missed their flight back into Charlotte which in turn made them miss the flight back to Albany.

They only turned on 1 phone while out of the country and they decided to email us for help instead of calling.

Turns out they rented a van and were able to drive back to Albany.

We just had a really good laugh after it was all over.

So, lesson learned....if you really need help and are really stranded someplace, don't make your email sound like spam :o)