British Justice Secretary Jack Straw has lost his wallet in Nigeria and needs $3,500 to get home. Or at least that’s what many people listed in his email contact list have heard after fraudsters struck.

Straw (pictured), who oversees the courts system, is safe and well in the UK and says there is no security risk as the Hotmail account concerned was used for his work as a local politician rather than his government role.

According to the Lancashire Telegraph, Straw’s local newspaper, the email claimed he was in Lagos, Nigeria as part of a product titled Empowering Youth to Fight Racism. He supposedly told recipients, “I misplaced my wallet on my way to the hotel where my money and other valuable things were kept. I would like you to assist me with a soft loan urgently to settle my hotel bills and get myself back home.”

Though one person reportedly replied to this, no money appears to have changed hands.

It’s not yet entirely clear how the fraudsters gained access to the account. One report has it that the account received a bogus email saying he must reply to prevent the account being suspended. An assistant in his local office replied and then found the account was blocked.

As that story doesn’t seem to make sense, there’s some speculation the assistant actually gave away the account password, making this a phishing attack rather than outright hacking.

In the seemingly inevitable irony for cases like this, Straw was the man who, in a previous government role, set up the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit which dealt with online crime from 2001 to 2006.

Straw says his office is still investigating the issue, but believes the confidentiality of voters who’d contacted him through the account has not been compromised. The account has now been suspended.

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Entry was posted on Wednesday, February 25th, 2009 at 2:17 pm under Hacking, Politics, Security.

Read more entries by John Lister.
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