This typically happens when we get a fake message which asks us to confirm our password and many of us  foolishly do it which is how the hacker gets our password. 

 

Read below

 I got an email

>from Gmailteam to reactivate the account with a

warning otherwise the

>account would be terminated permanently. They wanted

emial ID and password.

>I had no option but to comply with as it was on the

name and adrress of

>Gmail team. Later I opend the account to find that

the a account was hacked.

>I got phonecalls from friends who informed me they

are getting mails from

>that account which locates me in Nigeria. The mail is

being sent demanding

>money and help on behalf of me.

 

http://www.asianage.com/presentation/leftnavigation/news/india/hackers-creating-havoc-with-emails-.aspx
 
Hackers creating havoc with emails

By Sahil Makkar And Prashant K. Nanda

New Delhi, Aug. 2: Mahendra Ved, a senior journalist here, was stunned after receiving a call from his Bahrain-based daughter a few days ago, sounding distressed and enquiring after his whereabouts and well-being.
"She was crying and desperately wanted to reach me after reading an email, which was sent to her by someone who had hacked my gmail account and forwarded a troubling message to all my friends and relatives," Mr Ved says.
"Since Sunday, I have received at least 60 such calls," adds Mr Ved.

The email sent out by the hacker sought money to get Mr Ved out of a hotel in Nigeria where, according to the email, he was stuck after losing all his "money, valuables, passport and other valuables." The lengthy email ended with a request for $3,600 so that he can "settle embassy issues, pay hotel bill, and get a ticket back to India."

Mr Ved is not the only victim of this outrageous scam.

More and more professionals, students and businessmen are going through this, having to answer distress calls from close relatives and friends as their personal email accounts are being increasingly hacked into. The trouble begins after family members open an email message that informs them that their dear ones are "stranded" in an African nation without money or food.
"Hacking emails and sending scary massages to family members and friends have become a norm in India and the cops are struggling to battle it out," admitted a senior police official. (IANS)

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