I did start a new email and Whoa this is weird! I just sent him and email to explain what happened and this was the reply......

Oh no...l know this sounds weird and you wouldn't believe me...Yes, am really stuck out and it's so devastating at the moment i really need your help l wish l could cal but l don't have access to phone at the moment , I really need your help to get myself out of this mess. The hotel management has been kind to let have an access to a library to get across to anybody to help me since my luggage was also taken away.Hope to hear from you soon.....I don't really have much time i'm in a Local Library right now please get me out of here.

Be very, very careful.

You don't know for sure that it is your friend sending the e-mails.

Elise

Somebody else is using his email account. Does he not have relatives and friends of his own?

Delete. Ignore.

His account has been hacked , so that when you reply or send him e- mail to that adress it is really going somewhere else.

I don't think this is from him. Even though we are distant relatives we don't have that kind of friendship that he would ask me for money. He lives in another state and I have only corresponded with him through email about genealogy.

Do you suggest I delete his contact and never reply again? I don't think I will be able to inform him about his email being hacked because I don't have a phone number or address.

I feel bad for him as he has explained in the past year that he is very old and his wife has illness. Hopefully he can find out about what has happened to his email account.

You need to contact him a different way - the hacker is completely controlling his account now.

if you get another one mark it as spam too. perhaps his computer got a virus and everyone in his address book is getting those emails.

His email is being totally controlled by the hacker. Don't reply. He will figure out through phone calls from others that he email has been compromised. Just DON'T reply again.

Everyone in his address book is getting the same email that you have gotten.

I would not worry about identity theft. Someone has hacked his email and is sending bogus emails to his address book hoping to get hits. This happened to us at work when one of our coworkers was traveling. Just block the sender.

You have two choices, delete and ignore any further emails or continue talking to the hacker.