NEARLY everyone on Forest photographer Derek Hazzard's email directory has received a similar tale of woe.

He's been on a short break in Madrid with his family, and the robbers stole bags, cash, cards and his cell phone, so could someone send £1,850 urgently so he can pay hotel bills and get to the airport (fortunately he still has the air tickets)?

It's all a scam, the Review quickly learned after contacting Derek who is safe at home and was never marooned in the Spanish capital at all. However there is a chance some good Samaritan has fired an email back to be given a Western Union credit link for electronic payment of £1,850 – a nice little nest egg (perhaps even several) for the scammer who has managed to hack Derek's email directory.

"What I don't know just now is how to undo it all," said Derek, who hoped nobody had been taken in by the cash demand. "I also can't see how they managed to get into my aol email service without a password. They obviously hacked in at the server end and now all my email records are gone and I can't use email at all."

Identity theft is a growing problem and email users are advised to be careful especially when logging in and out of their emails on public computers in places like internet-cafes. Derek believes however that they found his address through his new website and is taking steps to make sure it is no longer displayed.