This scam did happen to me and to a friend of mine in Quebec, Canada, but I noticed it before it went too far. I thought the email was from her and hadn't noticed at first that just one letter in her email address had been changed. It was from someplace outside the U.S. Don't remember the country. It said she had lost all her personal info and needed help. Since she and her mother do travel to other places, I really thought it was from her. So I wrote back frantically asking what kind of help she needed. Then the response came back saying she needed a large sum of money wired to the address of the email. It was only then I carefully checked the email and saw the fake email address. I sent an email to my friend at her actual address but it was not deliverable so I assumed she had realized what was happening and closed it down. Moral of this experience:
1) Always check the accuracy of any email address.
2) Never send money or personal info to anyone without verification.