have had lots lately that are pretty sophisticated - emails that look real, and are just enough plausible to seem real. “extra rewards to claim” at Walgreens, “update your account info to protect from fraud” from the bank, and one that came in from a company with a PDF for info. I almost opened that one. Key for me is to look closely at the actual email address.
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Even a legitimate-looking email address may not be, though. Like the email my daughter got, supposedly from an apartment complex. There was nothing “off” about that address.
And I forgot about the scam my husband experienced. He got an email from a building code official. It was a “reply” to a previous email chain. He was asking for payment for services he had provided in his official capacity. Of course, THAT’S not right! My husband assumed the email was real and was furious. He called the small town the guy worked for and they said scammers had hacked into their computer and gotten into their email account! Unbelievable. So it’s my policy NEVER to submit payment in response to an email. I always go directly to the entity’s website or just call them.
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I always go to every website myself too - never, ever, through an email, even if I think it is legit.
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Same. And that’s what I’ve told my DD to do as well. I don’t trust emails these days. And I screen my phone calls. If it’s important, they’ll leave a message.
I’ve put my iPhone on the setting where any call not from a contact goes directly to voice mail. I’m not thrilled because it means that if I give my number to a doctor’s office or something, they can’t get hold of me directly and I have to return their call. But I got tired of answering spam calls when I was out and about.
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I got an email allegedly from Norton advising that my protection had automatically renewed for $429 and to call a number with any questions.
Problem 1 - my Norton uses another email address.
Problem 2 - my Norton renews in July.
Problem 3 - I have a different level than they claimed were renewing
I did separately log onto my account and confirmed all was well. And turned off automatic renewal while I was at it.
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Recently I got a smart phone notification of a Norton charge. I’ve had issues with them in the past and I was so annoyed. I got on the phone and let them know of my displeasure. It took awhile, but I finally got them to remove the charge.
Then I went downstairs and realized DH had signed up for it on his laptop. Oops.
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Just got a call (robo) that my Amazon account is being reviewed for suspicious changes…
Not.
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The “grandchild” scam has been around for a very very long time. I remember my parents receiving a similar scam nearly 40 years ago!
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@Marilyn, we have Comcast, which used to give us Norton protection as part of their service, and it ended at the end of 2020. It was replaced by their own “protection”, which isn’t as good as Norton. As a result, lots more spam emails are getting through. Ironically, the most common type are fake emails from Norton telling us ‘thanks for renewing with us, please send $399’! Of course, none of these come from Norton email addresses. They think we aren’t smart enough to hover a cursor over a link and see the ACTUAL address or site.
Or someone on their phone may be less able to hover and see the email.
What anti-virus did you choose instead @MADad?
@Marilyn, for now we are using the provided Xfinity protection, but as I said, it’s not as good as Norton. I just find the Norton to be crazy expensive. I may check out and see what McAfee is charging—we had McAfee provided by Comcast before they switched to Norton.
$399 per year is exhorbitant.
@MADad - none of the Norton software choices showing on Amazon are over $100, and most half that at most. Take a look at what’s available if you are comfortable with Norton, which I was for many years on two computers. I can’t imagine paying more for home system protection but with our new Windows 10 computer, comp sci son guided me through free protections that he recommended. Husband will have to decide what to do on laptop when we are up for renewal this summer.
I don’t need to pay a ton of money to eliminate spam, which mostly ends up in the spam folder anyway so I just clear it away from time to time. I’m pretty careful about not opening unknown emails, and on AOL can just right click on the email in the inbox and view message source to see if they are legit.
I had a very odd email today. It was a few lines long saying that Mom/Name had died peacefully today. I was BCC’d on the “group” evidently. The sender was maybe? legit and not screaming scam. But I do not know this Mom/Name and I do not know the sender. So am wondering if they were waiting for me to respond and then ask for funeral money or some such thing.
A search shows this Mom/Name died today in Florida. Supposedly.
That’s a new one. I think you might be right about fake funeral expenses. Maybe helping a “loved one” buy flights?
Don’t be jealous, but I received an email yesterday from the Director of the FBI. Evidently they’ve been trying to reach me because they need to deposit money in my account from an inheritance, and I just need to send them $375 for processing and verify some personal information. And if any of you need to contact the Director of the FBI, his email address is directorwray3@gmail.com (sounds pretty official to me!).
I work in IT and we are required to take annual training on learning to identify phishing, spoofing and other methods used. Always look at the email address - typically you can hover over the text and see the address. If you receive information about a locked account or similar issue, never follow links in the email - if you are concerned it might be legitimate, go directly to the site and log in separately.
My email spam filter does a pretty good job, although I always check because a few legit emails get filtered to spam as well.
My cell phone is from an area code I haven’t lived in for over 6 years. I still receive several spam calls each day from that area code. I have a couple of spam phone filters (Call Protect, Truecaller) but I don’t answer calls from numbers I don’t recognize, and I block any new phone numbers that make calls. It’s a never-ending struggle.
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^ Maybe the Nigerian prince will invite you to his castle. Just don’t pay for the flight.
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Like the Norton scam I got one from Geek Squad saying they were renewing my account for $299. No Geeks for me plus all the phone numbers etc were way off. I’m so tired of this stuff.
I get this email almost weekly from “AMazon” there is a pdf attached to complete info.
Reminder] - We need to update your payment method because your payment method is no longer valid on Wednesday, January 13 2021.
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@college_query, congratulations on your inheritance! I can’t believe Director Ray called you personally. Wow! 
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