Just got a realistic scam email (for once)

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

Most of the scam emails and texts I get are obviously scams - full of mis-spellings, the email address bears no relation to the business it says it's from, about a parcel I'm not expecting, etc etc.

This one though was not obvious to start with, not to me, anyway. I got an email yesterday from a woman whose Mum was a close friend of my Mum's. My Mum has stayed in touch with the daughter and they send each other Christmas and birthday cards. My Mum also sends cards and presents for this woman's grandchildren. She sent me a very nice message when my Dad died last year, which is how I have her email address.

Anyway, yesterday I got this brief message:

I hope this finds you well!

Do you have a free moment over email?

Love Jane

I've hardly ever corresponded with this woman so have no way of knowing if this is a normal way for her to write emails. I thought she might want to know how Mum was or to ask about a Christmas present idea. So I replied, very briefly, saying go ahead. Then I got this.

Good to hear from you, I was going to ask if you could help me purchase an Amazon E-Gift Card. I intend to buy it for my friend's daughter, who has a cancer diagnosis. I'd promised to get the card for her today. I tried purchasing from Amazon myself, but it says they are having issues charging my card. I contacted my bank, and they told me it would take a couple of days to get it sorted. I am just trying to put a smile on her face. Can you help me get it from your end? I promise to reimburse you. Please let me know if you can handle this.

Love Jane

There is no way on earth 'Jane' would ever ask me to do this. Obvious scam. However, it's a lot more plausible than most, so I thought it was worth mentioning just in case anybody else gets stuff like this. If I knew 'Jane' a bit better I might have fallen for it, although even then I'd always have rung her to ask what was going on first before parting with any money. These scammers are scum, aren't they?

(Before anybody tells me, I know there's no AIBU. I didn't consciously choose to put this in AIBU. It must be the default. So apols for not noticing that.)

I hope this finds you well!

.....

Standard scammer line.

Thank you for the heads up

Thanks for mentioning this, it’s not one I’ve come across. Very clever.

Had a similar one. It’s a good scam, the absolute bastards. Spotted it was a scam quite quickly as the ‘relative’ who emailed me has never done so before.

Its a pretty well known one to be honest but always worth sharing just in case some people haven't come across it

I had a similar one from my Dad's account but was signed off with his name & obviously that gave me a heads up he didn't sign off 'Dad'.
Had gone to all his email contacts though so lots of friends called him to check. Turns out my Mum who's usually quite savvy had clicked a dodgy link & account was hacked.

My very intelligent and worldly dad had the same scam a couple of months ago and he almost fell for it. It was only when he mentioned it in passing to someone else that they said “That’s a scam! Call your friend and I bet they know nothing about this” and sure enough friend’s email account had been hacked.

I'm sure, but also extremely common in work emails when I was working.

Gasp0de, you have been over-influenced by TA and scam week 😉

They did have one of these on Y&Y, someone with her neighbou, very similar set up.

One of the giveaways is that there's a sense of urgency introduced straight away. The first message is so generic and vague that a bot probably sent it.

I don't think I ever had received one quite like that before. Have had my email address for about a quarter of a century so it will be on every scammer's list, I'm sure. But in this case I imagine it's 'Jane' who's been hacked.

They're getting better. I've had a few of the "Mum I've lost my phone" ones which I knew were rubbish because a) my DDs would have got in touch with their DHs for help and b) they've never called me "Mum".
However, we've got a friend who's a keen photographer and used to send photos on email to DH and me on my email. Recently we've switched to communicating via WhatsApp.
However, when I got an email from "Jane Smith" titled "New pics" it didn't set off any warning bells. Again, turned out to be a scam but they'd at least managed to get me interested.

Yes, that's exactly what alerted me. Give me all your money NOW!!!! Don't stop to think! Plus the horribly manipulative use of the emotive case of a child with cancer. How do they sleep at nights?

I knew someone would make that link! The thing is, what's happening in The Archers this week has very little to do with real scams. It started that way, but this kind of humdrum stuff is far more realistic.

@LaMarschallin I love those "Mum" ones. I keep them talking for ages. Then, just when they think they've got me, I ask "just remind me, what name did you decide on for the puppy?"

I Love those - I start by asking how the weather is in (completely unrealistic location such as Outer Mongolia) and then I fill them in on all the (totally made up) local gossip.
Last one said it was quite nice weather in Azerbaijan but was strangely uninterested in the fact that him next door had run off with the postman.

What is the email address if you check it on a laptop?

It's not realistic in the slightest though. It just screams scam; the cancer diagnosis, the issues with the bank card, the fact the scammer never addresses you by name. Why on earth would an acquaintance you barely speak to suddenly get in touch to ask for money?

Absolutely baffles me that people fall for this stuff.

I love stringing them along too.
I try to waste as much of their time as possible 😁

Yes, that follow up email was not realistic and I spotted it was a scam immediately. I didn't spot the first one, though.

It's the right email address. That's the other reason I didn't spot it as a scam immediately. I do the hovering thing automatically now. (Only really deal with email on my laptop, not my phone.)

Did you click on the email address? I always find they are random letters and digits and very obviously not connected to any of the businesses and individuals they purport to be. Frankly, if I have not given an individual my email (ie Jane) I would assume it was a scam and delete on sight.

By replying, sadly, you have signalled that your email is functioning and it is now open to hacking. If you use if for anything financial (amazon, banking etc) I would set up a new email and change everywhere that you use it that is associated with payments/direct debits.

My mum had one from RBS yesterday which was so convincing that I almost fell for it. Middle aged Scottish woman, very pleasant and went through everything very professionally. Only started to fall apart when I told my mum not to give her any details and then she started saying they are accessing your account now as we speak, you need to login to your online banking now so we can catch them in the act 😂 I’m just baffled at why this pleasant educated sounded middle aged woman is doing this!

I think the first email, is quite a normal scam one, in the sense that it's weird and a bit unrealistic, like its weird to ask for a moment of time via email, you've already got that, it's email just spit it out.
The reason they do these kind of emails, whether ones like that with a strange question, or the spelling mistakes aren't done badly by mistake, its a deliberate decision, its basically a filter system, to get a list of active emails and those who are potentially susceptible to scamming, in the sense of they replied to an off email.
As you've replied, make sure you're cautitious over the following months, year type thing, as active phone numbers and emails of people who respond do tend to get sold and passed around.
Big things to remember in the future is, be wary of weird questions from long lost people or even close peoples emails that feel weird, off or out of character. As others have said always check the email address and always ring the person or use another offline communication if in doubt.