Sen. Wiggins’ e-mail hacked

By JILLIAN JONES
Register Staff Writer

State Sen. Patricia Wiggins, D-Santa Rosa, is thinking about new legislation to protect consumers’ identities after she had her personal e-mail account hacked.

Spammers hijacked Wiggins’ personal e-mail account and sent a request for money before the fraudulent messages were caught. The messages were received by friends, constituents and elected officials, Wiggins’ spokesman said.

Hackers also changed Wiggins’ password so that she was unable to use her e-mail until technicians at Microsoft helped her regain access to it. Microsoft technicians found that the hackers were located in Africa, according to a statement from Wiggins’ office.

The hackers’ message, sent in Wiggins’ name, asked recipients to send $2,500 to help the sender travel to England for a youth conference. “Kindly let me know if you can be of help so that I can send you the details to use when sending the money through Western Union. I await to read from you,” it stated.

Wiggins said she went public with the information so that recipients would understand the e-mails were fraudulent. Her office received multiple calls that she had been hacked, Wiggins’ spokesman said, but at least one concerned caller believed she really needed the money.

“Once again, we are reminded of how easily this kind of thing — identity theft — can happen, and how it can happen to anybody,” Wiggins said. “I have not been to England in more than 20 years. And were I to ever lose money while traveling, there are certain backup measures available to me that would not involve me sending e-mails to friends, acquaintances or constituents asking for funds.”  

Wiggins said she will consider introducing legislation soon to protect against identity theft.

“We’ve seen a number of laws passed at the state and federal levels that were designed to combat the problem of identity theft, but it’s likely that additional measures are needed,” Wiggins said. “I will be discussing these issues with consumer groups, privacy experts and law enforcement to determine what else needs to be done.”

Napa Valley Register Copyright © 2009