Jack Straw has been targeted by Nigerian fraudsters who hacked into his email account and sent out requests for cash. ![[Linked Image]](http://1.2.3.10/bmi/news.sky.com/sky-news/content/StaticFile/jpg/2009/Feb/Week4/15229279.jpg)
Not one person who received the email offered to send Mr Straw any money
Emails were sent to hundreds of the Justice Secretary's contacts claiming he had lost his wallet while on charity work in Africa and needed $3,000 to get home.
Among those receiving the bogus pleas for help were Ministry of Justice officials, Labour Party members, constituents and council bosses.
One constituent replied to the email, but no one offered to send any money.
Mr Straw told his local newspaper, the Lancashire Telegraph, that the emails were sent to a "significant number of people".
But he said there were no security issues because the attempted fraud related to addresses stored in his Blackburn email account rather than a ministerial one.
The problems began on last week, when Mr Straw's office responded to a message saying that its email account would be suspended unless a reply was sent.
Constituents then began to phone the office asking about an email they had received which said Mr Straw was visiting Nigerian capital Lagos for a project called Empowering Youth to Fight Racism.
The fake email said: "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."
Mr Straw said: "I started getting phone calls from various constituents asking if I was really in Nigeria needing 3,000 dollars.
"It was an issue for constituents, not the Government. We are checking all that and I am assured there's no evidence that confidentiality of constituents was affected."
SKY NEWS.COM
