Email Scam, Hacker or Virus?

Yesterday was a very disappointing day for me as my email got hacked.

I don't know how but maybe because I replied to an email notification from Yahoo that looks so legit because it has this Yahoo logo on it and the address looks complicated with that yahoo dot dot dot address, something that really looks like a legit address, but whom am I to know the real Yahoo services email addresses. That's the only recent incident that I can recall where I have to write down again a sort of application form including my password.

Yesterday, I can't log in to my yahoo mail as it is not accepting my password. I thought it's just another glitch from YM, so I just totally ignored it and went ahead with my work. Around 4pm, that's when I received an email send to my office mail from my YM mail with this message:

Hello,

Hope you get this on time, sorry i didn't inform you about my urgent trip to Leicester, United Kingdom for an urgent function. Unfortunately,i was robbed at the park of the hotel where i stayed,all cash, cell phones and credit card were stolen off me but luckily for me i still have my passports.

Embassy is far from here and my flight leaves this evening but am having problems settling the hotel bills and the hotel manager isn't helping issues. Well i really need your financial assistance. Please, let me know if you can help me out with £960 so i can settle my bills as early as possible and return home for other important appointment. As soon as i get back home, i would refund it immediately. Please get back to me quickly .

Thanks!


Peachy.

So, I instantly checked my YM and still I can't log in. I was able to recover it by changing my password again after answering the security questions. But then all my contacts in my address book and all my emails are gone/erased/deleted. I thought everything is ok already. It was send to all my contacts I think because I received a call from an ex-colleague asking me about that, after that call, I instantly posted a status in my FB informing all my friends and families about that vicious email, and truth, majority of them received the said email. H's sister who was in Canada received it also. She was almost scammed by this email because when she replied asking where am I and what's the number to call coz she wants to check if I'm ok, that email replied back with this email:

From: my complete name To: address of my friend
Sent: Thursday, December 1, 2011 9:07 PM
Subject: Re: Awful Trip
Thanks a lot for your response to my present ordeal, its a devastating condition which i found my self .I came in here to attend to volunteer program before this unpleasant incident happened.I have loosed everything on me,all i need now is fiscal cash to settle my hotel bill and get a flight back home. Western Union or Money Gram happens to be a quicker means of sending the cash, and please bear in mind that I'll facilitate your reimbursement as soon as i get back home. Please use the details below to send: Name: My complete name Address: 103 Uppingham Road City:LEICESTER ZIP Code:LE5 3TB Country: United Kingdom Just help me write out the MTCN or scan the receipt and other necessary details. I'm looking forward to hearing you ASAP. Thanks.

Patricia.

(note:i erased my complete name and the recipient's address)
H's sister after receiving this, called a friend in London and asked him if he can go to that address assuming it was the hotel's address, to check if I'm ok. That friend luckily or unluckily was 6 hours away from that place so he told H's sister to give his number to me or where exactly am i so that I can call him instead and we can meet somewhere as I will be missing my flight anyway. H's sister was so worried about me that she just decided to send the money from Canada, she and her husband was on their way out already when her husband told her why not call H first to know if I'm ok already or not yet because it's like an hours ago already, that I should have receive a help from someone else already. They called H and heard the truth, then I got alarmed because I already changed my passwords hours ago before the sister replied to that email so how come she received a reply from that email.

When I checked my mail, again I can't log in. I have to changed my password again. And then once I got home, I tried fixing my mail, because apparently I can't receive emails if someone is using the reply option. That's when I noticed the address. It's going to or sending to address@rocketmail.com that's not my legit email address. I'm no expert in fixing this things, but luckily I was able to fix it. I noticed that under my mail options, all replies are send to this rocketmail address. I changed it and put it back to my legit email address.

I just hope no one got scammed with this email. I'm not in close contacts with all my contacts in my address book, so I will not know if they did reply to that email. I lost all my old mails, even my original contract is in that email and some pictures from friends too. So sad.