Got this message from a friend with a MSN account

I'm writing this with tears in My eyes My Family and I came down here to (United Kingdom) for a short vacation,unfortunately We got mugged last night in alley by a gang of thugs on our way back from shopping, one of them had a knife poking my neck for almost two minutes and everything we had on us including my cell phone, credit cards were all stolen,quite honestly it was beyond a dreadful experience for us but looking on the bright side we weren't seriously hurt or injured and we are still alive so that is whats important.

We've been to the embassy and the Police here but they're not helping issues at all and our flight leaves in less than few hrs from now, but I'm really having some difficulties clearing our hotel bills and also need to pick up a voucher ticket at the counter for us to catch a flight back home in a couple of hours.

Am freaked out at the moment and i need your help right away! wondering if you could please loan me some Money??

Hang In Here.
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This is the 2nd message I've gotten from a friend. He lives next door, so I know he is not in the UK.  The first one had a .mac email account.  I contacted him and he said that his password was a very weak one after we spoke a while.  I think it's time for everyone to change their password and use a good password testing tool to test its strength.

Use this free one from M/S: https://www.microsoft.com/security/pc-security/password-checker.aspx