A RETIRED accountant is warning email users of a scam that sent disturbing messages claiming he was stranded on an overseas trip and urgently needed cash.

Scammers who hacked into Weymouth resident Roger Hogbin’s BT email account wiped out all his contacts and deleted his emails.

A message signed in Mr Hogbin’s name and sent from his email account went out to his friends, family and business contacts.

The message claimed he had been run over at high speed by a van while on a business trip to the Ukraine.

The ‘Roger’ in the fake message says he lost all his valuables at the scene and needed £2,850 to pay for his hospital and hotel bills.

It said: “I have made contact with my bank but it would take me five to seven working days to access funds in my account. I’m urgently in need of money to pay my hospital and hotel bills and my flight ticket back home.

“I will be grateful if you can loan me £2,850, will definitely refund you as soon as I am back home.

“Please let me know if I can count on you so that I can forward you the details required for the transfer.”

Mr Hogbin used to work for Weymouth and Portland Borough Council and as a member of the local Rotary Club was chairman of Weymouth Carnival in 2012.

He said: “As soon as people started letting me know what was happening I began texting everyone to tell them it was a scam.

“The last time my account was hacked with a similar scam saying I had been robbed in Jakarta someone was on the verge of sending me money. People do fall for it.”

Mr Hogbin added: “The biggest pain for me with this was losing all my contacts until they were restored.

“But I want to warn people about this scam. There are people out there who may have just started using the internet and not be aware that these are scams and people can hack into your account,” he said.

BT restored Mr Hogbin’s email contacts and all his emails.

A BT spokesman said: “Our advice to all customers is to take care in releasing any personal details and to delete unsolicited e-mails.

“If a customer suspects there may have been suspicious activity on their account we would advise them to change their password and to report this at bt.com/contact.”

DON'T REPLY TO THEM, URGE POLICE

DORSET Police has been made aware of similar email scams and warns email users not to send money to people who appear to have got into difficulty without checking if it’s genuine.

A spokesman said: “In the emails, scammers claim to have suffered some bad luck – for example, being robbed or mugged – during a holiday and ask the victim to loan them money to cover their costs of returning home.

“The scammer asks the victim to reply to the email to arrange the easiest way to transfer money to them.

“This is a scam and members of the public should not reply to fraudulent emails like this.”

People are urged to report fraud and internet crime to Action Fraud at actionfraud.police.uk