I am sooo careful with emails in case they are scams. I never click on links unless absolutely sure the email address it’s from is genuine and probably not then either.
So I was horrified that I fell for this one and thought I’d mention the details because it was very convincing.
I belong to several small family history groups and use a special email address for that sort of thing. This one purported to be from the Essex Society for Family History or ESFH regarding an extension to my subscription to lifetime membership.
It gave the "secure payment " company details and the subscription number, told me how to go on there and pay and then to reply to the initial email with a screenshot of the voucher I’d bought and they’d update the account.
I did this (yes I know…stupid…) and the money came out of my bank. This morning I got an email from ESFH saying that this was a definite scam (must have been reported to them) and to contact my bank and virus check the computer. All of which I’ve done and the bank is refunding me.
So - the points to look out for are that you pay an apparently legitimate on-line secure payment service (in this case recharge.com ) and send the voucher details to the scammer purporting to be a supplier who then cashes it in.
Hope no-one else falls for this. It was only a small amount and it’s the finance people who have my card details not the scammer but even so…
Coincidentally I was watching a YouTube video by the gloriously named “Atomic Shrimp” who regularly posts about online scams (and does some amusing scambaiting as well from time to time).
He was specifically commenting on scam emails that purport to relate to missed parcel deliveries, but there are so many different ones it’s hard to keep track.
As you say, it’s easy to fall for a scam when it resembles an email that you were expecting.
Atomic Shrimp also posts videos about foraged food and cooking on a limited budget if that’s of interest.
Sorry you were targeted like this. They knew you are part of the group that they impersonated from the sound of it, i.e. this was a “spear-phishing” attack not a generic phishing one, which suggests to me someone somewhere involved in that group has had their details compromised, and that the scammer was then able to identify you as a target.
At a previous company I worked at, we’d regularly get scammers sending emails pretending to be the CEO. They’d send emails claiming to be in a meeting with an important client. They’d say this was urgent and quickly try to switch to WhatsApp so we couldn’t monitor things. If they were successful in convincing the victim, they’d ask for Amazon gift cards to be bought, and the codes shared via WhatsApp. One person fell for it and sent them £300 worth of vouchers, before realising the CEO was sat in her office alone all day.
…I’ve just remembered the other half replied to a post on Facebook recently about buying wood for the winter (our normal supplier was arrested last year ). It was so cheap that already it set alarm bells ringing. Plus they only had a mobile number listed, which they never answered but would contact you by text afterwards. By this point I was sure it was a scam but the final thing was they said payment had to be made via a voucher bought at the tabac that had to be given to the lorry driver, and no receipts could be given. Needless to say, we’re not buying from them.
I was surprised at the variance of scams happening. Well used to the usual ones but this was the first I’d had of that nature. As you say, it had to be someone in the group, although I’m not sure how since I don’t know the emails of any other members…
This request is genuine and not a scam. We are currently looking for an English teacher for a school in Salon which has been in existence for 6 years called A2Z English Playschool.
Lucy
Each year our ramoneur tells us how good the wood we’re burning is, so I’d have to be desperate to change that arrangement! Mind you, the supplier getting arrested is a pretty good reason
Here’s another one to look out for. Recently received a speeding fine after my car was flashed on a French motorway. Went through the procedure of transferring the fine to my partner who was driving at the time and who paid up more or less immediately. About 10 days later I started getting SMS messages purporting to be from ANTS (the French government agency which handles all things driving related, including fines) urging me to click on a link in order to pay the fine which was soon to be majorée. After some thought I figured out it was a scam as it came from a 06 and then a 07 number and the link didn’t actually work which all seemed rather odd. What is unsettling is that the scammers somehow must have known I’d had a fine recently which is why this very well timed scam hit me when it did.
Sounds a little bit like the phone call we had just after we’d had Orange out to fix the line. We found out later that because Orange subcontract all their line work to lots of other small firms, any work that is being done is published on a database and accessible to all the subcontractors. It only takes one bent employee…
It’s possible they knew, I suppose, but hardly likely. Normally they send out so many SMSs or whatever that it looks genuine (on the basis that people get speeders all the time).
). It was so cheap that already it set alarm bells ringing. Plus they only had a mobile number listed, which they never answered but would contact you by text afterwards. By this point I was sure it was a scam but the final thing was they said payment had to be made via a voucher bought at the tabac that had to be given to the lorry driver, and no receipts could be given. Needless to say, we’re not buying from them.
