It is for sure AI assisted but that is common now
But does ‘she’ want my mind, my body, or my money?
Not sure any seem worth the effort…
Oh, that’s all right then. A scammer would never say that.
Wearing my sceptics hat, rather looks to me like the launch of a honey trap ![]()
Another one arrived this morning.
Began with a short, seemingly innocent how are you enquiry from our nearest neighbour whom we’ve not seen for a while. Thought it a bit odd, but then shortly after got another email explaining that she was in a ‘cancer treatment centre’ with ‘stage 4 colonic cancer’ and wanted me to do her a ‘favour’!
Tragic, except she has lots of family locally and usually communicates with us through WhatsApp to my wife…
What struck me as odd, or more likely inept, was that although the scammer had presumably connected me with my neighbour, they hadn’t bothered to use an email address similar to hers.
That was probably a mistake, as that tells whoever is targeting you that you do exist and you are contactable. It’s an important piece of information for possible scammers.
Received this today, from – ‘security@facebookmail.com’ – supposedly from Facebook. Beware!
I’ve added my SF persona to where they had my FB persona.
Can’t remember when I joined FB and wish I hadn’t, but family members and acquaintances use it.
No need to be a member of anything now to receive scam emails!
I don’t and never did have FB. Still get the scam email mentioned above. I don’t drive but somehow I was clocked speeding and ‘the gendarmes’ threaten. I do buy things online but not using Mondial Relay who text a parcel pic with my name at least once a week.
It is really coming thick and fast these days! I never click on a link in anything anymore.
A few times I’ve received a very official looking frightening police report scam intimating that I’m being accused of child abuse.
How can those who create scams live with themselves? There is something crucially missing in their mentality.
I’ve been receiving very few scams since I started using ProtonMail and, above all, an email address ending in @duck.com (DuckDuckGo, and its email address generator).
I use protonmail and its password manager and vpn.
I live in fear of forgetting my login details, but apart from that, it’s great.
(Apple for disposable email addresses.)
What about Mozilla Thunderbird - Free. It liaises with your email provider. Been using it since 2012.
Scam and Phishing Detection: Thunderbird scans incoming messages for common scam traits, such as hidden links, mismatched web addresses, or links pointing to numerical server IP addresses. When triggered, it displays a warning banner.
Adaptive Junk Filter: It uses a Bayesian statistical algorithm to categorize junk mail. You must train it by clicking the ‘Junk’ button when you see unwanted mail so it knows what to block next time.
Remote Content Blocking: It blocks remote images by default to prevent scammers from tracking if your email address is active.
I’ve had a couple of those. Very nasty.
Voila! Here we go - another of those nasty emails! The document is a photo. Any legal document sent over the internet would be sent as a .pdf document.
I also had a plain blackmail attempt once. I received an email from somebody who threatened to tell my family and friends about all the pornographic sites I visited. He said he knew my login password and told me what it was. It was close but not close enough. I saw enough pornography at work to know how dull and boring it was.
Yes, my son had one the other year so took it to the local gendarmerie, three of whom had also received same email accusing them too!
Reminds me of two scams which were popular at one time.
The first involved scammer acquiring your email address and password from the proceeds of a data breach. It relied on the fact that many people reuse the same password for all their online activity, and so couldn’t be sure that the password quoted wasn’t the one they’d used for the tractor website it was claimed they’d visited.
The second was a claim that the scammer had gained control of the victim’s webcam and recorded a simultaneous stream with what the victim was watching.
I think it is safe to say that a) if one were really suspected of any of the crimes listed it would involve a knock on the door, not an email and b) in the unlikely event of the first contact being by email it would not start “Cher internaute”
Absolutely. Knock on the door, quick hello you’re nicked and then seize laptops phones etc.

