Recently, my wife received an email from her friend “Jaclyn” requesting some money. “Jaclyn” was so nice in her email — and so vague.

The thing is: this wasn’t her good friend, Jaclyn. Instead, it was someone posing as Jaclyn, trying to extort money out of her.

My wife has gone through similar email phishing attempts in the past — she’s served on the board of several community programs as treasurer. Often, her information is posted publicly, along with the other board members. This makes them an easy target, and, in fact, I’ve told her they probably shouldn’t do that anymore.

But, having seen someone fail to recognize this type of scam and make a payment, I’ve taught her what to look out for and how to secure her email accounts. Nothing is foolproof, though.

This time, I decided to respond. Not to tell this person off, but to play a little game. What transpired was an unusual couple of days, which resulted in the phisher asking me to stop contacting them.

Rather than having me explain, I documented everything for you to take a look at how it went down. Enjoy!