Scam emails

[Wittsend]

Anyone else getting a scam email purporting to be from someone on your contacts list asking that you buy a gift card (Apple or Amazon) - no value given, and you send it to them and they will reimburse you you

The back story that this is for a friend's daughter with cancer and their card has been refused. Her birthday is tomorrow.
Another give away is that the subject line is brief and in capital letters.

I smell scam



If this is a genuine plea for help then it's been badly composed.
If their card has been declined - get on to your bank !
Don't misuse capital letters.

PS
There are still a lot of text messages doing the rounds.
Hi Mum (or Dad) I've lost my phone.
Please send me some money.

(I should coco)

PPS
A £100 Apple gift card will just about get you a USB cable. Not much of a present. I wonder how much they were expecting ?

Stay safe

[simonbav]

Yes. I had one as you describe a month or so ago from a "reputable" source, ie. our local curate. Used their name in a fabricated email address etc. I was none the wiser as it played out until I checked via mobile text to the authentic curate, and then enjoyed my choicest response to the scammer. 

[Wittsend]

You have to be so careful.

Got 2 emails proporting to be from my ISP. My ISP has a verification function where you can drag a suspect email into a box and they tell you if it's a real email from them.
A pity more organisations don't do the same.

   Never follow a link in an email. Always go to your browser and enter the website with your login and you'll soon find out if they are trying to contact you.

What gives the game away is the use of capital letters and the poor grammar/English.
Unfortunately with the advent of AI scam emails will be harder to spot 

[Alan Drover]

I'm extra cautious about scam emails. Recently I received one from my bank asking me to click on a link. Before I did so I visited my local branch who confirmed it was from them so I clicked on there and then only to find out whatever it was had been cancelled.

[Beowulf]

If it were from someone on my contacts list, I`d expect it to contain personal information that I could relate to e.g., is Betty/Bob/Bill still in hospital or have you still got that old Land Rover, I`ll give you £5 for it? Personal information that a scammer wouldn't know about.

Thankfully I almost never get this stuff, the PC security suite sends it straight to the Spam folder. Its a dangerous world, always looking for an open door and tempting us with sweeties to let them in. Don`t do it

[Rob_W]

A quick check for unknown emails is to forward it, but don't send. Then read what the origin address is. On a PC you may be able to hover over the sender name to check, so Wittsend@S2C may show as Scam@acme but on a phone this isn't always possible. Hence when you forward you'll see the sender properly as [email protected]@acme or similar.

Re clicking on links. Don't, as mentioned.  You probably can't tell the difference between myroom@ and rnyroorn@ on a small screen.

[Betsy1969]

I'm extra cautious about scam emails. Recently I received one from my bank asking me to click on a link. Before I did so I visited my local branch who confirmed it was from them so I clicked on there and then only to find out whatever it was had been cancelled.

You have a local branch ? That's a luxury not afforded to many these days

[Alan Drover]

Strangely none of the banks are closing branches in my town. My bank is a "digital"  branch (no counter service) but I can use a local post office for any transactions that I can't do in the bank branch.

[Exile]

I'm extra cautious about scam emails. Recently I received one from my bank asking me to click on a link. Before I did so I visited my local branch who confirmed it was from them so I clicked on there and then only to find out whatever it was had been cancelled.

This raises a not so spoken-about problem.

I received a suspicious looking email purporting to be from my Credit Card provider.

No way was I going to do what was asked.

So I sat in a phone queue waiting for the mis-named "Customer Service" to provide a service to the customer.

Eventually I was able to raise my query - and found that the email was from them.

I made my feelings quite clear, that as all their customers will have had scam emails, they should jolly well make the effort to show that this was not one - and save their customers wasting their time.


They make me do "two-step verification", why shouldn't they do the same?

[Old Hywel]

HMRC regularly email me offering webinars which, they suggest, could be of interest. They may well be genuine, but when it addresses me as 'Dear Customer', I start to wonder.