E-mail hacking

I had a scary experience yesterday when I fired up my Yahoo email to find a missive from a friend:
"I'm writing this with tears in my eyes,my family and i came down here to London,England for a short vacation to visit a resort and got mugged at gun point last night at the park of the hotel where we lodged.All cash,credit cards and cell were stolen off me .I've been to the embassy and the Police here but they're not helping issues at all,our flight leaves today and I'm having problems settling the hotel bills.

The hotel manager won't let us leave until i settle the hotel bills($1700) now am freaked out.Please reply and let me if can you have the money wire to me through western union i promise to pay back as soon as i get back home.

Thanks,
Maureen"

OMG! and at gunpoint! Something seemed a little off about the email but I instantly replied and shortly heard from 'her' again:
"Glad you replied back,i have nothing left on us right now and we're lucky to have our life and passports with us it would have been worst if they had made away with my passports.Well all i need now is just $1700, you can have it wired to my name via Western Union i'll have to show my passport as ID to pick it up here and i promise to pay you back as soon as i get back home. Here's my info below

Name - Maureen
Location - 59 Dan y Coed Road Cardiff,
London CF23 6NE United Kingdom

As soon as it has been done, kindly get back to me with the confirmation number. Let me know if you are heading to the WU outlet now???

Thanks.. I really OWE you BIG
Maureen"

As I had requested that her next email include a telephone number for the resort so I could call, and this email did not include it, I did not rush to Western Union, but re-mailed to "Please! send a phone number." Because I figured I could just give her my credit card number. While waiting for 'her' to email me a phone number, I googled the address in the UK and a blog came up from Tim Ross chronicling a similar situation as a scam and I was really thankful for that. I did not hear back from 'Maureen' and later learned that her email account, Yahoo, had been hacked. So here's my contribution and I surely hope no one gets scammed.