A couple weeks ago, I received an email from a good friend in Big Sandy asking me for an urgent favor. The letter explained a series of unfortunate events involving a last minute gift, an illness, laryngitis (which made it so I couldn’t call for confirmation of the story), and a cancer patient who needed $400 in Apple gift cards from her. The favor involved me purchasing the cards and sending the information on to facilitate the gift giving process. Despite having come from my friend’s email address, it didn’t read like it had been written from her and bore many of the marks of a scam email. T...