Is this Email a Scam?

It has been very common to receive weird and interesting emails from your friends these days.

Hackers have many ways to hack into users' emails accounts and mass send scam emails to email addresses in their contact list.

Below is an example of a freshly generated very interesting email:

Hello, How are you? i do hope that you receive this email in good health. I am presently in England London to be with my ill Cousin, he's suffering from a critical uterine fibroid and must undergo a hysterectomy surgery to save his life . I am deeply sorry for not writing or calling you before leaving, the news of his illness arrived to me as an emergency and that he needs family support to keep him going, I hope you understand my plight and pardon me.

I want to transfer him back home to have the surgery implemented there because hysterectomy surgery is very expensive here, Am wondering if you can be of any assistance to me, I need about ($2,500) to make the necessary arrangement; I traveled with little money due to the short time I had to prepare for this trip and never expected things to be the way it is right now. I'll surely pay you back once I get back home, I need to get him home ASAP because he is going through a lot of pain at the moment and the doctor have advised that it necessary that the tumor is operated soon to avoid anything from going wrong. I'll reimburse you at my return.

Is this email a scam?

Obviously, yes, this is a very common online scam tactic.

If your friend is desperate for money, he will be very direct in his email and not waste time giving fanciful greetings. As much as he tries to be polite, he should have greeted you by your name. This email shows that the sender does not even know who you are.

Do not forget about the technology has advanced so fast that there is MSN, Skype, Yahoo Messenger and even social networking sites such as Facebook. If I were in his situation, I would try these media, where I can talk to friends who are online at the point of time, instead of sending email, which the response is likely to be slower.

Do not neglect the usual typing tone of your friend. In Singapore, many people uses Singlish LAH. Do you think your friend has suddenly become proficient in his English language? Many people R nt used to type in proper English animore, dun u tink so?