Watch out for this one folks …
I have just had a badly typed email demanding to know why my phone is switched off, and suggesting that I am avoidung paying their invoice for a 3-figure sum. A “copy of the invoice and their bank account details” was attached.
There were several things that made me very suspicious when I looked at the message via webmail. And, with very good reason. On down-loading with my mail program, my A-V software immediately flagged the attachment as containing a particularly nasty virus (Trojan Small DII, for those interested).
If you get such an email, please do not try and read the attachment. Delete the mail, and then delete the attachment.
Geoff
thanks geoff
i don’t open any attachments any more.
horrible people who send things like that
carole x
One of the nastiest email scams ever happened to my husband recently.
He received 3 emails from someone at ‘NICE’ telling him he had cancer and must download the results immediately and take the attached details to his doctor.
It’s okay for us, we had a good laugh about it and we know what NICE is and just how stupid the email is, but it could have fooled anyone who is not net-aware.
i received one from the suppposedly tax office saying i was due a rebate of £675.33 , great said I , was dying to email them back and say good on you considering i haven’t paid tax for the last five years,
If it is too good chances are it is
trish
I had two from a ‘travel company’. The first one was a credit card receipt for the flight that I’d booked (!) and the second contained details of the flight. Luckily, I’m aware of such stuff, and called my credit company to check, but they were very convincing…
And again!
This time it pretends to be an invoice (and if you know anything about computer file sizes and suffixes it should ring the alarm bells). Again, I think the scum who mailed it out hope that people will be curious enough to click on it .
Even the phone number given is fake, and the return address is for a church in Yorkshire (either someone has hacked their system, or there is some un-Christian activity going on).
Beware!
Geoff
And yet again!
This one had the same sender’s name as the previous one, but a different address.
Be very careful out there …
Geoff
“If it sounds too good to be true it probably is too good to be true” is a good motto. If it claims it’s urgent, it probably isn’t, it is probably a scam.
Never click links, never open attachments on suspect emails and treat all unsolicited phone calls with the same cynicism as unsolicited email. Never confirm details and if it sounds like it might be genuine, ring off and then ring back using a number you find on a bank statement or letter or on their website.
The one I came nearest to falling for was an email that claimed to be from my aunt, claiming she was abroad and had been robbed and was in urgent need of money. It sounded plausible but I’d heard of the scam before I got the email so I rang my parents to check if my aunt was abroad and they confirmed she wasn’t - her email had been hacked.
One of my best defences against all these scams is a very health dose of cynicism. If I don’t recognise the sender’s name or their reason for emailing me, then I assume it is dodgy until proven otherwise. It is rarely proven otherwise!