Contrary to an e-mail people might have received Monday morning, Carole Goldcamp, Hanging Rock clerk and treasurer, is safe and sound in Lawrence County, not trapped in the United Kingdom in need of $2,500.

Goldcamp’s e-mail account was hacked and messages were sent from that account to her friends, family and work contacts telling them she was robbed and stranded after a weekend trip to Wales and she needed money before she could return home. The e-mails looked legitimate, containing her e-mail signature at the end, and her title as clerk and treasurer of Hanging Rock.

“The mayor said his e-mail dinged at 4:30 this morning and he said, ‘I didn’t know she was leaving,’” Goldcamp said. “I don’t even have a passport.”

Goldcamp said she received calls from cousins she hadn’t had contact with in a long time, who were concerned about her. She said she was not able to send a message informing people it was a scam, because her e-mail ac count said she had exceeded her limit of messages that could be sent.

“It’s an eye opener for me,” she said. “I made a simple e-mail and simple password and that’s where I went wrong.”

Goldcamp also said she plans on making her business and personal e-mail accounts separate from now on. She said if anyone needs to contact her regarding the Village of Hanging Rock, a phone call is the best option until she can straighten out the e-mail account.

Scott Nicholas, director of the Computer Science Technology Program at Ohio University Southern, said another important step for Goldcamp is to change her security questions for her password.

Nicholas said an easy way for someone to get your password is to search social networking sites for easy information that would be asked in a security question, like school names, names of pets and hometowns.

“People now days are so open with things on Facebook, they put a lot of those details on there,” Nicholas said. “They collect those personal details and go to Gmail or Hotmail or Yahoo and say they forgot their password, and then it will ask the security questions.”

Within minutes, someone can be logged into the e-mail account and sending messages to everyone in the address book.

Nicholas’ advice for Goldcamp is to delete the account, starting a new one with a new user name

“If she needs to keep it, then she can change the password immediately and also change the security questions and answers,” he said. He advised making sure the security questions chosen are not about information that has been posted on a social networking site.