Indy businessman victim of e-mail scam

INDIANAPOLIS, (WISH) - You know him from his business Judge's Barbecue. But Tuesday, the popular businessman became a victim of a growing problem: an e-mail scam.

Judge Smith is one of the nicest people you will ever meet.

Dozens of his friends received an e-mail from his account today saying he was in Spain, in trouble and needed help.

Turns out, Judge was actually in Indianapolis and took more calls than usual.

Judge Smith is known for his barbecue.

He's owned and operated his Haughville restaurant for 7 years.

Tuesday, the business phone started ringing off the hook.

"It's been really busy, the phone never rings like it has today," said Judge's Barbecue manager Jason Martinez.

"I get calls. Some people want catering, some people want to know hours etc," Smith said.

But Tuesday morning, they were asking about something else.

"Asking if Judge is ok: if he was here; if he was in Spain," said Martinez.

"He said I just got this e-mail. It said that you were in Spain, that you had been robbed; that you had no money, no cell phone, that the police weren't helping you," Smith said.

Hundreds of Judge's personal contacts received an e-mail.

Even several people at WISH-TV got one.

The subject line said: Sad Trip,Judge Smith.

The e-mail said Judge was in Spain with his family for a short vacation and he and several other hotel guests were robbed.

It also said, "I'm going to need some sort of loan to relocate to another hotel close to the embassy." And

"Police here are not helping issues at all."

Smith thinks his e-mail system was hacked, but a computer expert we talked to said that's probably not the case.

Damon Richards owns Port-to-Port Consulting, an outsource I-T company.

He said it was someone in Judge's e-mail list that opened a virus and he was a one of the targets.

"If I'm a virus and I infect your system, then I send myself all the people in your e-mail address; the assumption in your e-mail address are familiar with you and will open it because they recognized your name," Richards said.

"This system has done this to me twice. They will not get to do it a third time," Smith said.

He said he's getting off e-mail for now, "Be aware of these messages that seem to be tugging on your heart, when really, that's what they are trying to do is get you to react when really its a hoax."

Smith alerted his friends after he realized the problem on Facebook and Twitter that the e-mail was a scam.

Damon Richards said you should have anti-virus protection on your computer.

He also said if you receive an e-mail with a virus attached to it, it normally has a link for you to click on.

Richards said hover over that link and if it says something other than what the link actually says,it more than likely a virus.