Scam emails

Sunny

Sunny

SF VIP
Location
Maryland
Watch out for emails that look real at first glance, but are obviously scams. I've gotten two in the last week, one supposedly from PayPal and one supposedly from Amazon. They tell me my account has been frozen due to "suspicious activity" and I should click on their link to correct the problem.

Obviously, I didn't click on anything. I left the email web site and logged into my real Amazon account, and after that my PayPal account. Both were perfectly fine.

One tipoff was the strange looking e-mail address. Another was the oddly formal wording. These guys should work on their English language skills. 😅

Anyway, just a warning. You probably know this already but just a reminder: companies and government agencies do not contact people this way. If in doubt, just do what I did; log into the company's web site as usual, and look for any "warnings." You probably won't find any, 99% of the time.
 

A timely warning, the scammers are getting better at camouflaging email to look legit. I have stopped opening anything from a source I don't recognize, and even then I have to be careful to be sure I really recognize them. As you say the scammers are getting better at imitating sources like PayPal and Amazon. I never respond to or open even those anymore. If I think they might be legit I go directly to my account on the websites, they never send email without some kind of message to your account as well.
 

Most times, these emails will have nonsense in their return address, ie: amazonprimeXQ*&M which is why this should have arrived in junk mail folder.
 
I got one from "The FBI" once saying that child porn had been found on my computer and that my arrest was imminent. HOWEVER, I could immediately pay a "fine" and charges would be dropped.

I got the email up on a split screen and boy howdy! Those guys did a magnificent job of copying the FBI page. It was a work of art. I forwarded it on to the "real" FBI. I'm sure even they were impressed.
 
Sunny said:
Watch out for emails that look real at first glance, but are obviously scams. I've gotten two in the last week, one supposedly from PayPal and one supposedly from Amazon. They tell me my account has been frozen due to "suspicious activity" and I should click on their link to correct the problem.

Obviously, I didn't click on anything. I left the email web site and logged into my real Amazon account, and after that my PayPal account. Both were perfectly fine.

One tipoff was the strange looking e-mail address. Another was the oddly formal wording. These guys should work on their English language skills. 😅

Anyway, just a warning. You probably know this already but just a reminder: companies and government agencies do not contact people this way. If in doubt, just do what I did; log into the company's web site as usual, and look for any "warnings." You probably won't find any, 99% of the time.
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This sounds exactly like the two I received last week. Both of those had the strange looking email addresses plus one of them couldn't spell the word alert correctly. I did the same as you did but before I deleted it, I reported it as Phishing then I went to my Amazon and PayPal accounts and mine was fine also.
 
I have not gotten any scam emails, but phone calls for sure with the same types of messages.
 
The one last week from our big telco was almost perfect. If we hadn’t known that our account wasn’t delinquent, it had the real potential to fool someone. Even the address was spoofed. When we went to their real site, there was a major warning.
 
At least every other month, I get e-mails warning of "suspicious activity" or that my banking, Amazon, eBay, or PayPal account has been locked and that I must click on their link to make things right. The peculiar or fractured English, misspelled words, or strange sending addresses are dead giveaways to attempted fraud.
 
We get them now and they're very good immitations of the real thing. Very few now have spelling mistakes or anything that would give them away as not the real thing as they once did . You have to have your wits about you not to fall for these scams
 
Sometimes, @hollydolly the mistakes in spelling, etc. are done deliberately, the reasoning being that if one ignores the obvious then that person is the better 'mark'. It's like weeding out the smart ones from the suckers.
 
The awkward English always jumps out at me. It makes me realize what a subtle and complicated language English is. (Maybe they all are!) As hard as they try to sound genuine, there's always something that's a little "off."

Unless, as Pepper says, they are doing it on purpose. That's possible. After all, it isn't that hard to hire a native English-speaking editor.

This is a little bit off the subject, but I notice that when shopping online and reading the description of the item, it is often written in really horrible fractured English. Even if the clothing is all made in China, can't they get someone who is literate in English to write the description? A 5-year-old kid could write better!
 
We're all certainly familiar with the Nigerian Prince who needs our help ($$$) receiving his massive inheritance. Well, a guy I used to work with went along with the gag and kept promising the scammer he would send him the requested money. Drove the crook crazy. Very entertaining.
 
Sunny said:
The awkward English always jumps out at me. It makes me realize what a subtle and complicated language English is. (Maybe they all are!) As hard as they try to sound genuine, there's always something that's a little "off."

Unless, as Pepper says, they are doing it on purpose. That's possible. After all, it isn't that hard to hire a native English-speaking editor.

This is a little bit off the subject, but I notice that when shopping online and reading the description of the item, it is often written in really horrible fractured English. Even if the clothing is all made in China, can't they get someone who is literate in English to write the description? A 5-year-old kid could write better!
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Perhaps the Dumbing Down of America has succeeded beyond its wildest dreams.:rolleyes:
 
Thanks for the updates about scams. I don't think I would have noticed their email address peculiarities, if you mention them. But I have to add. You all are getting scams, all the time- a couple this week, one or two last week. Well, what the hell is wrong with me? Not that I crave to get them, I've never gotten one. I feel snubbed by scammers.
 
I've gotten into the habit, for years, of quickly scanning my e-mails, and if I don't recognize the source, I just move it to the Spam folder...without opening it. The clue is usually in the senders "address"....usually some lengthy address that barely coincides with a legitimate site.

I also note a substantial drop in the number of Robo calls we've been receiving in the past few weeks....I suspect that the corona virus chaos in India is causing a lot of those spam centers to close down.
 
Ugh. I'm getting scam friend requests on Snapchat. Scam friend requests. On Snapchat. Unbelievable. That's enough to make one give up on life. My sons insisted I open an account on there so I can see videos of the grandkids. Blah. Videos aren't the same as being there. I'm an old lady. What the hell am I doing on there?
 
Judycat said:
Ugh. I'm getting scam friend requests on Snapchat. Scam friend requests. On Snapchat. Unbelievable. That's enough to make one give up on life. My sons insisted I open an account on there so I can see videos of the grandkids. Blah. Videos aren't the same as being there. I'm an old lady. What the hell am I doing on there?
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Am I the only one who has no idea what snapchat is ? :unsure::rolleyes::ROFLMAO:
 
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