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?

If you have the woman's phone number I would phone her or text her and tell her to change her password on her email address.

They recruit deliberately for that, like nice British accents, it will normally be either she doesn't realise she's involved in scamming, she might have been recruited for what she thinks is a real business (often having been scammed themselves, so they know they're persuadable to believing) or she knows but just doesn't give a fuck, because she will be making a percentage of the scam money. Could also be voice cloner/voice changer.

Desperate for a WFH job I guess.

I always wondered why scammers never bothered to check their spelling or ask someone with a basic grasp of English to write their messages. It always seemed like only a matter of time before they'd cotton on to the fact that mipselling emials is a sruefrie way to direct something to a junk folder. I suppose with AI available now it's easier for them to make messages more believable.

Any unexpected email about gift cards is a scam.

It's a deliberate choice for most, if you reply to a blatant scam email, with spelling and craziness in, you're more likely to get further along the scam with them, it's a filtering system so they don't have to waste time on people who would work it out after the second email or second call.

There is an ongoing piece about scams on R4 at the moment, apparently the key things to look out for are
Sense of urgency
Something unexpected
Being told not to tell anyone
Being asked for help by someone you don't know well/at all
Sounds like a great deal

It’s Scams week I think. Martin Lewis latest podcast is interesting too.

An anti-fraud seminar that I went to a while ago was addressing AI and fraud - demonstrated an ai generated supposed letter/email text supposedly from from a charity seeking donations - well phrased, excellent English, 100% plausible.
I think the world of it being OK unless there was a mention of a Nigerian Prince are long gone.

Same conference this week included a session about donor fraud was about the lack of controls around people making "charity" collections at supermarkets, the lack of control, and how little of the money gets back to the charity. I work in the sector and was shocked - obviously some are legit, but be warned.

About once a month I get one, apparently from someone I know, asking for a favour as they are stuck in meetings all day, then request to buy itunes/amazon cards ...

I had one to my work email, a colleague had had one previously so we were aware of how it went.

I actually rang them to alert them that they had likely been hacked. The biggest giveaway for me was the dreadful spelling / grammar for someone who solely uses speech to text.

I had a text "Hi mum, this is my new phone number ....". As I was actually sitting with all my children at the time, we fell about laughing. Although if I were an elderly mum of one child, I could have easily been taken in.

This one has been doing the rounds for ages and has scam written all over it.

This is a really common one, along with getting a message from an email that looks like it is from your boss saying “can you contact me urgently but not by phone as I’m in a meeting” and if you write back, you are asked to buy Amazon cards as a team gift

I hahaven'got any children, so I responded to my one and only "Mum, lost phone" text with "Which of my four children are you?"

I can't imagine having that much free time. It's a bit sad really that you have to talk to scammers for social interaction.

It stops them being able to go after someone else. A very worthwhile use of time.

Rude
I am lucky to have quite a bit of free time and I figure that if I am wasting their time its less time they have to scam someone else, plus its funny

@potatocakesinprogress a bit rich considering you are on mumsnet at 11.25 on a weekday.

😂

What a strange way to look at it, I've strung a scammer along before just for shit and giggles, I have no lack of social interaction at all. It's no different to typing on here when you're having a coffee or watching TV and might just delay them in scamming a vulnerable person

I got one of those. I don't have any children so that was a big clue that it was fake.

I had an email from a friend once that asked if I ever use Amazon and could I help her with an order.

It seemed a very odd request so I called her and her e mail had indeed been hacked.

I have also had several claiming to be from my DD saying she had lost her phone and please could she call me on the number she had texted from saying it was her friends phone. The wording of the text did not seem like her at all and I had heard of this scam before so I ignored it and called her on her "lost" phone.

I read a funny article about someone who'd had exactly this scam; his friend 'Geoff' with a sob story asking him to buy Amazon Gift cards.

He emailed back a couple of hours later "Hi Geoff, I've bought them and popped them through your letterbox." 😁

I keep getting emails supposedly from Booking.com telling me I've won a luggage set. Now I do use Booking.com a lot but I'm sure this is a scam as I'm getting it sent virtually every day.

Anyone else had this one?