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opas
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Post by opas »

This one is clever.

A very proffessional lookig tittle along the lines of Fedex money transfer, it looked good,, offering us a welcome back deal.....except we have not used them before! And the name they addressed us by is one used in an email address we only ever use whwn we are enquiring about a service or product we prefere not to use our real name for.

Beware as they cut to the chase asking for bank details etc.
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tubs
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Post by tubs »

Had a very authentic looking email from Amazon this morning saying my account has been suspended and requesting I verify my bank details. Not likely! But you can see how some people are taken in by these scams.
Be careful out there!
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russell
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Post by russell »

I forward all my mail through gmail now as they have a very efficient spam blocking filter.

Russell.
martyn94
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Post by martyn94 »

russell wrote:I forward all my mail through gmail now as they have a very efficient spam blocking filter.

Russell.
I have used gmail for years. The spam-blocking system is good, but an increasing number are getting through: not V!@gra but innocent looking emails claiming that msmith@gmail.com is an existing customer (of eg Kellogg's cornflakes US!). I suppose one or two may have been set off by near-name-sakes who have forgotten their own email address and think they own mine, but most must just be a scam. For obvious reasons I have never gone far enough to establish exactly what sort of scam: I just click gmail's "report spam" button, and they are mostly, but not always, blocked from then on.

Slightly more worrying, I have recently had a couple of the "validation" emails that sites, or Google themselves, often send, indicating that someone is trying to use my email address to set up some account or other: "if this was you, please click on the link to validate the account, if not please ignore this email". If you do click, you end up with an account which they can access (because they set up the password) but you cannot. It is easy enough to avoid the trap simply by reading carefully before you click on anything (as always), but enough people must fall into the trap to make the scam worth doing.

I am fortunate that I have a slightly unusual first name, and use only my initial in my email address, so the scammers have to guess it: it is a dead giveaway for me to receive an email to msmith@gmail.com which starts eg "Dear Michelle Smith". You cannot change your first name to a less common one, but if you are thinking about actually migrating to gmail (or whoever), it is worth putting the bare minimum of personal information in your new email address. And also I suppose by using eg msmith5907@gmail.com, so you are less likely to be found by spammers who are just permutating the possibilities. But that is, so far, a precaution too far for me.
Robert Ferrieux
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Post by Robert Ferrieux »

Robert received an email yesterday from his cousin; she signed it with her name & surname (in case we didn't know who she was!) She told us how her tour in Africa ended tragically: a brutal attack led to the death of the chauffeur and also the guide. Her travelling companion was knifed & raped, and she herself was grievously injured. The French embassy couldn't or wouldn't help and she couldn't be admitted to hospital until 3,467 euros arrived. Could Robert cough up, PDQ? By the way her email address had been changed.
I split my sides laughing.
carol sheridan
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Post by carol sheridan »

I got an email from Paypal last week to say they had detected suspicious activity. They sent me copies of the despatch notices, and the delivery address was my daughter's house in England, where I have not lived for nearly three years. I emailed the seller and he told me the buyer had been hassling him all day to let him pick up the iphone from his house. Luckily, he got my email before they arrived.
I was puzzled as to how my old address and my new French Mastercard could have been linked, then I remembered that I had forgotten to cancel my ebay account. Paypal are refunding the money for the two iphones, nearly £1,000 but say it can take up to 30 days. This is annoying because I could easily have gone into overdraft if I had not been able to access my mail. In the event, I have had to take the money out of my deposit account.
I have closed both my ebay and Paypal accounts and cancelled my Mastercard - CA will send me another. I have also changed all my passwords.
It is good to know that Paypal does monitor all accounts and spotted the unusual activity.
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