A PENSIONER was shocked when friends rang to ask if he needed help in Cyprus – while he was sat at home in Smallfield.
But shock turned to horror for Gary Davies when he realised he had become the latest victim of e-mail hackers.
Every contact in the 74-year-old's e-mail address book had received a message saying he was stuck in Cyprus and needed money sent to him urgently.
Despite considering himself a competent "silver surfer", Mr Davies admits he had no idea how to react to the breach of his personal account.
"It was a very, very worrying time," he told the Mirror.
"I felt I really had been violated; people had read my private e-mails and that was bad.
"It is not different from them coming into your house and rummaging through your things."
Though he uses e-mail daily, Mr Davies says such attacks are more damaging to the vulnerable elderly members of the online community because they are less savvy about how they should react.
With family spread around the country and contacts for his various community projects – such as Horley churches and Crawley Lions – Mr Davies was afraid someone would fall for the scam.
He said: "People do really need their computers. There are vulnerable people out there that would possibly send money out.
"I am worried some older people would think 'Oh my god this is a friend of mine and I must do what I can to help them'.
"It is a con, they're nasty, bad people."
This year there have been several national reports of computer hacking with both Yahoo and BT e-mail account holders among the victims – both companies have investigated the reports but there is still no guaranteed fix for the problem.
Though the problem is rare in Surrey, police spokeswoman Dawn Groom said: "Surrey Police urges anyone who believes that they have been a victim to contact officers with information so that a thorough investigation can be carried out to find those responsible and bring them to justice."
Though he has now regained control of his account, Mr Davies says he is being even more careful now.
"Never let your password out of your head and change it frequently," he said.
"That is important because there are ways of these bad people getting your password and that is frightening."
