A Spanish Inquiry

Usually we leave it to our ace cops reporter John Branton to report scams — but this one hits politically close to home.

Vancouver City Council candidate Bill Turlay’s campaign email sent a plea to folks on his contact list Wednesday, saying he’s misplaced his wallet in Spain, is trapped and needs $2,800.

One reader called The Columbian to express her indignation that she would send Turlay an email asking about his positions as a candidate, only to be hit up for dinero.

Turlay is not in Spain. He and his wife, Stephanie, are crying foul.

“Seems as though (2010 Republican State Representative candidate) Brian Peck had one of these floating around last year,” the real Bill Turlay wrote. “Question arises: Is this a political gambit to discredit a candidate or a coincidental extortion effort?”

Here’s reporter Kathie Durbin’s political blog on Peck’s email hacking “scandal” last year.

“This is more than a coincidence,” Stephanie Turlay wrote. “Something is rotten in Denmark.”

Well, conservative blogger Lew Waters hopped on the email thread, assuring the Turlays that nothing is likely rotten anywhere. This happens all the time.

He said he gets tons of these types of emails.

“Looking over the message sent in your name, I seriously doubt this has any political links to it,” Waters wrote. “The wording and sentence structure indicates to me someone trying to translate English from their language, Nigeria or some other well-known source for these scams.”

He added: “Be sure to change your email password just in case.”