Every single day I get emails like the one above. Plus, I get texts from “UPS” or other delivery services that say they can’t deliver my package. It’s being held until I make a payment.
Of course, I don’t fall for them. But I wonder how many people do? Especially senior citizens, our youth or naive.
When I get the daily half dozen fake PayPal emails I forward them. Here are the instructions from PayPal — the real PayPal.
Phishing email/message
Received a suspicious email, or message or been directed to a fake website? Forward it to phishing@paypal.com and then delete it. We’ll investigate it for you.
Don’t reply, open links, download attachments, or call any listed phone number.
https://www.paypal.com/us/cshelp/article/what-are-common-scams-and-how-do-i-spot-them—help201
My friend in Santa Barbara does lots of errands for her next door neighbor who is older and has sight issues. My friend began to worry when she’d take her mail to the post office and realized she was mailing out dozens of letters each day addressed to sweepstakes. She discovered her elderly neighbor was mailing dollar bills to “win prizes.” She called the neighbor’s daughter who lives in another state and they finally put a stop to it. She would pick up the letters and pretend to mail them, but hold onto them, eventually returning the money.
Another scam I heard about happened during my daughter’s last year in college. One of her friends, who is book smart and was high school valedictorian, got a phone call from the “IRS.” He was instructed to buy Apple gift cards and mail them to an address that was supposedly the government agency.
He emptied out his college account, which had his last semester’s tuition of $1,200 and bought gift cards at the local grocery store. (Yes, he had several scholarships is why his tuition bill was so low.)
The cashier questioned him but he insisted on buying the cards. Then he mailed them.
You can only imagine the teasing he received from his college mates after that! Today this young man is a doctor. Yikes.
What scams do you see in your inbox? Have you heard of any other ones I didn’t mention? Are you worried AI will lead to more scams?
I do get emails like these but I put them in spam. The Hotmail address attracts spammers more than my gmail address! I wonder why.
I added a gmail email and it gets zero spam emails.
Same here.
I wonder why?
I think the security at google is better.
Wowza….you can never offer too many reminders like what you’ve offered in your post, Elizabeth. Just when we think we’ve locked down the portals to nutty scams, another pops up, like whack-a-mole. Yesterday the hubster received three text messages from supposed “realtors” asking if we’d be interested in putting our house on the market as a pocket listing…not contact info, no last names, no discernible or credible details. Makes you feel vulnerable, for sure, but we figure it’s just a scattershot blast of messages hoping, like phishing, some sad soul will take a bite. Annoying! 😠
We get those real estate messages too. What worries me is my husband answers all calls even if he doesn’t know who is calling. I’ve heard they can record your voice and use it with AI for who knows what!
Yikes – hadn’t thought about that…oh my goodness. Yes — best not to answer at all or respond. Period. 😮
If it’s important they will leave a message! But I haven’t been able to get hubby to change his habit of answering every call…
🤣🥰🤣 Good luck…old habits…die hard!
Don’t I know it! 😅
There are new ones all the time. Almost everything goes directly to spam so every once in awhile I look to see what’s in there and just laugh at how ridiculous some are. The texts are the worst and thankfully so obvious to me after all this time seeing what folks will try to get away with. I know though how much of an issue scams are for so many who get sucked into the process for whatever reason. I hope that if I ever reach the point of not recognizing what’s happening I have someone in my life like your friend who looks out for others. She’s a keeper!
My friend is a keeper! I would like someone like that in my life too if I am no longer able to figure out the scams.
Yikes indeed! EEKS! Thanks for reminding me of the need for vigilance. While scammers get smarter, some of us seem to be betting stupider. LOL
Some are so obvious with misspelled words and poor grammar, but others are getting better.
What scams do you see in your inbox? For the blog I get ones about becoming a *brand affiliate* with some company wherein they’ll pay me to write about them then publish it on my blog. As if…😏
Have you heard of any other ones I didn’t mention? Are you worried AI will lead to more scams? I am certain AI is going to lead to more scams. How could it not?
I get the same brand affiliate emails. I’m also sure AI is going to lead to new scams like recording our voices on phone calls and doing who knows what with it.
My Dad got a call from “verizon” telling him his account was suspended and to call a number to have it reenstated. Dad is on my Verizon account. He called me and left a message to do whatever I needed to do to get his number reenstated. He called me from the suspended number…. I told him “dad, 99% of all calls or emails are a scam, unless you recoginze the number – ever digit in the number”
Wow. That’s a good one. I worry about my dad who is 91 being able to recognize scams. Funny your dad didn’t realize his phone line still worked!
And he was a COP for 40 years
WOW!
I have gotten tons of phone calls, not so many emails thank goodness. Every once in a while I’ll get a text message. One thing I always try to remember when I answer the phone is not to say the word “Yes” when they ask if I can hear them. They can take a clip recording of that “yes” and use it so say that I agreed to something. I always say something like “what do you want?” or if they ask how I’m doing I say, “I’m angry that you’re calling here, please take our number off your list!”
That’s a good reminder not to use the word yes. I’m afraid with AI that they can manipulate our voices to say all sorts of things.
Oh, the͏ consta͏nt ba͏ttle͏ wi͏th the͏ cosmi͏c a͏nnoya͏nce͏ of sca͏m a͏nd spa͏m e͏ma͏i͏ls—i͏t’s li͏ke͏ pla͏yi͏ng wha͏ck-a͏-mole͏ i͏n the͏ di͏gi͏ta͏l re͏a͏lm! The͏se͏ sne͏a͏ky me͏ssa͏ge͏s a͏re͏ the͏ uni͏nvi͏te͏d gue͏sts a͏t the͏ pa͏rty of li͏fe͏, a͏lwa͏ys tryi͏ng to cra͏sh i͏n a͏nd rui͏n the͏ fun. But he͏y, we͏’re͏ a͏ll i͏n thi͏s toge͏the͏r, a͏rme͏d wi͏th our de͏le͏te͏ buttons a͏nd ske͏pti͏ca͏l si͏de͏-e͏ye͏s. Li͏fe͏’s too short to le͏t the͏se͏ e͏ma͏i͏l i͏mpostors bri͏ng us down. So, he͏re͏’s to fi͏lte͏ri͏ng out the͏ noi͏se͏, ke͏e͏pi͏ng our i͏nboxe͏s spi͏ck a͏nd spa͏n, a͏nd le͏tti͏ng the͏ re͏a͏l ge͏ms of communi͏ca͏ti͏on shi͏ne͏ through. Che͏e͏rs to a͏ spa͏m-fre͏e͏, sca͏m-re͏si͏sta͏nt di͏gi͏ta͏l e͏xi͏ste͏nce͏! 🚀📧✨
I love your comment! Spick and span inboxes are a goal!
I feel like I’m pretty cognizant of what is scam/spam. My mom’s cousin was getting scammed the day I met him, about 2013. Someone trying to access his computer to “fix” a problem (they called him and he fell for it). My aunt almost fell for the gift card scam – I really didn’t think she’d be that gullible. At least she did finally figure it out. But another aunt of mine – who was not on internet or email – got taken in by a phone scammer during the pandemic. She lost als most her entire life savings and neither her bank or investment company did anything to put a stop to it! I think it is what led to her death, frankly. I’m talking big six figures.
I am so sorry about your aunt who fell for a scam. It seems like there should be some sort of restitution! My dad was almost tricked into the computer “fix” scam.
You are right – the scams are pervasive and are really good. Thanks for the reminder to be vigilant!
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It’s so frustrating all the scams out there. It makes me wonder what kind of people would spend their time trying to trick others into giving them their hard earned money. It’s so ugly. Thanks for the reminder to stay vigilant especially during the holidays! Hugs, C
I do worry about people getting sucked in that may be hard of hearing or not as sharp as they used to be. As for my daughter’s college friend, the word is naive.
This is scary. My mom was almost scammed a while ago. Someone made a fake Facebook account pretending to be her cousin. Told her to apply to something in the government to get 10,000 $
My mom sent it to my brother, telling him to apply. He told her it’s a spam. So my mom texted this scammer telling them that her son thinks it’s a scam and the scammer had a text conversation with her convincing her to click the link. My mom then asked me and I searched on Facebook and showed my mom that someone made a fake profile. She then blocked them. My sisters also almost fell for a scam. They applied for so many giveaways and then were sent a msg that they won a giveaway but they need to put the bank account info to get the giveaway. My sister almost put the account info, had her husband not stopped her and told her that giveaways only ask for an address not bank account info.
I forgot about the fake FB accounts. Those are scary because they steal someone’s photo and a few posts from their account and send private messages that look like the real thing. I’m glad your brother protected your mom!
True. Yeah, me too.
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