Rebekah LaSala reads the e-mail her friends and family thought was from her.

"I'm sorry I didn't inform you about my travelling to Africa. Please, I need your help because I forgot my little bag," the letter read.

The e-mail asked LaSala's family to all quickly wire $2,800 to Africa because LaSala, allegedly visiting there, left her purse in a taxi and could not pay her hotel bill and had no way to get back home to Seattle.

"They thought it was from me," said LaSala.

The e-mail was convincing because the return address was LaSala's very own: RebekahLaSala@hotmail.com. It's an e-mail address her family and friends know well.

KIRO 7 Consumer Investigator Amy Clancy: "Were you worried about Rebekah?"

Christy McBurney: "Oh my God, yes!"

Seattle resident McBurney is one of the people who received the request for money. She didn't want to use her real name, or show her face, because the virus she believes was attached to the e-mail has made her nervous.

McBurney: "I thought maybe she really is in trouble."

Clancy: "And you had no reason not to open it (the e-mail) because it was her name."

McBurney: "Right. And my junk protection didn't pick it up."

Clancy: "Because she's e-mailed you before."

McBurney: "Sure."

According to Microsoft, which operates Hotmail, between 75 million and 150 million phishing e-mails are sent out every day.

Hotmail is just one of the many e-mail providers that criminals are targeting, and the scheme LaSala fell victim to is common: A criminal hijacks into the account and sends a plea for help to everyone on the user's e-mail list.

So, how do the criminals get access?

"I saw a survey that looked like it was from Hotmail, and I thought it was valid. It said, 'If you still want your account, in 24 hours we are checking accounts to see if they are valid, and yours happens to be one of them.' It had a Hotmail logo and I thought it was valid," said LaSala.

So, thinking she was communicating with Hotmail, LaSala unknowingly gave the criminal her password.

Microsoft's Senior Director of Trustworthy Computing, Adrienne Hall, says any request for anything secret should be a warning.

"Microsoft and other businesses will never ask for personal or financial information over e-mail. So, folks should not respond to that. If they're at all suspicious, they should check. Either contact the company themselves or look on their Web site," said Hall.

LaSala's suspicions weren't raised until she could no longer access her e-mail account. By then, the damage had been done.

Clancy: "Do you know if anybody actually gave any money?"

LaSala: "No. I had a friend that got pretty close. She was back in Maryland. She had a bunch of churches try to send me money."

Clancy: "So they were raising money on your behalf?"

LaSala: "Yeah. Fortunately, no money was sent, but again, if any money was sent, there would have been absolutely nothing I could have done."

Compounding her frustration, LaSala says she had a difficult time contacting someone at Microsoft who could help her gain access to her free Hotmail account in time to warn those on her e-mail list.

"I got a call back from a woman named Cynthia who said, 'Well, I understand you sound very frantic; you sound very upset. But we don't have a customer service number at Hotmail,'" said LaSala.

That's a frustration shared by other Hotmail users who say their accounts were also hijacked, and they, too, were told that because Hotmail is a free service, no live customer service would be provided.

That's something that Microsoft claims is simply not true.

"The 1-866-PC-SAFETY line has some options on it. But you can certainly speak with a customer service representative and ask any questions that you have. I'm pleased to say that the Hotmail team contacted Rebekah and has worked with her to resolve the issues there," said Hall.

LaSala is relieved this whole ordeal is over. She no longer uses that Hotmail account and none of her contacts lost any money, but it still bothers her that someone used her name in a criminal scheme.

"It's a crime. It's an Internet crime. And your identity is being stolen, and they can pretty much do what they want," said LaSala.

Meanwhile, Microsoft warns to be on the lookout in this phishing scam and many others for typical red flags: Bad grammar, misspelled words and the request you wire money overseas.

LaSala has filed a complaint with the FBI.

If you've been a victim of a similar scam, agents said they want to hear from you as well.