Internet hacker(s) gained access to the MSN e-mail account (Hotmail) of information minister Olivia 'Babsy' Grange on Sunday and attempted to scam money from more than 500 contacts in the minister's database.

While the attempt was not successful, this was the second MSN e-mail scam attempt of this kind as Newstalk 93 FM disc jockey Tony Gallimore also had a similar experience earlier this month.

Speaking with THE STAR yesterday, Grange said the hacker(s) gained access to her e-mail after she responded to a prompting she received while using her Hotmail account. "I was going through my mail on Sunday and a message popped up saying that MSN was shutting down and I needed to send in my account details to verify my account and keep it active," the minister said. "I was locked out of my e-mail after I sent in that information."

Minister Grange said the mail started circulating shortly afterwards as contacts from all over the world started calling her to validate the authenticity of the message.

Soft loan

An excerpt from the mail, similar to the one that was sent out after Gallimore's e-mail was hacked, read: "How are you doing? hope all is well with you and family, I am sorry that I didn't inform you about my travelling to England for a programme called Empowering youth to fight racism, HIV/AIDS and lack of education.

"I need a favour from you a soft loan urgently with the sum of $2,500 to sort-out my hotel bills and get myself back home, let me know if you can be of help so that I can send you the details to use when sending the money through western union."

The information minister said that one contact came close to falling for the scam. That individual called another friend to ascertain what currency the money should be sent in, as the e-mail, while stating the 'Babsy' was in England, did not ask for pound sterling.

Minister Grange said the matter was not reported to the police but noted that she was in dialogue with MSN.com, which promised to investigate the hacking.

Persons are being warned to exercise caution if asked for their e-mail account details (username and password) on any website while browsing the Internet. Hackers often create these prompting to obtain account details and later control the accounts, locking out the original owner.