What did I almost fall for? A phishing scam.
They almost had me. I was on Facebook for the Creative Women of Pinnacle Peak’s page. That’s the charity I volunteer for to help victims of sex trafficking. I’ve written about the group and our focus HERE and HERE.
I’m in charge of communications and publicity for our group. I’m promoting our annual fundraiser on Facebook as well as other places. I logged into FB and saw a notification that our page was going to be taken down due to copyright infringement. It was a message that looked legit from Meta. I panicked.
How could it be that a group of less than 30 women, who have been around for 30 years could violate FB rules? We are helping the community for pete’s sake! They provided a link to file a complaint and have our account reviewed. I clicked on the link.
Up came a box asking for my name, birthdate and password. I filled out my name and birthdate. I didn’t have the password, because I was given access to the page, but didn’t set it up. Then I thought about it. Why would they need that info?
I erased the info and began looking at help pages on FB to find out if this was legit or not. The first notification that our page would be deleted was from a person named Wojtek Brawo. I clicked on this person’s account and there was no info and no posts. Only a few friends. Then I googled the name to find out what country or nationality the person was from. I found this:
Wojtek was a Syrian brown bear adopted by soldiers of the 2nd Polish Corps during World War II. As a young cub, his mother was shot by hunters, and he was found in the mountains of Iran by a young boy. The boy then sold him to a group of Polish soldiers who were in the country after being evacuated from the Soviet Union. Wikipedia
I did report this person as a scammer. Then a second notification came under a different name with the same message. I reported that one to Facebook, too.
My husband has been close to falling for phishing scams. He gets texts that a package is arriving but he needs to click to update information. I tell him it’s a scam and tease him about not realizing it’s phishing.
Now I almost fell for one! In defense of myself, the scammers are getting better and better. Be careful and if something doesn’t feel right, don’t click. Don’t provide any personal information online!
What phishing scams have you seen in your inbox, texts or online?
FYI, if you missed my post Friday, please take a look HERE. I posted new hawk photos. I accidentally scheduled it for the wrong day. Corrected my mistake, but it didn’t appear in Reader.
Whoa! Crazy. There are so many scams! One popped up yesterday — looking like a Microsoft email about password expiration. Gotta stay dubious and vigilant! 😉
I feel so vulnerable at times. Phishing used to be so obvious. Now it’s getting more sophisticated. Yesterday I had to deal with a hacked credit card. I found two small charges under $10 that used a social media site name. I knew we hadn’t spent money on that site.
Crazy, crazy!
😕
Nice catch, Elizabeth! I think that “panic” is what phishers try to capitalize on. So awesome that you didn’t fall for it!
You’re exactly right. I did feel panic and wanted to take care of it right away. I’m trying to promote our charity event and feel responsible for its success. I’m hoping my entering my bday wasn’t captured. At least I didn’t click send!
I’m constantly telling my husband not to click! So many scams these days it’s hard to keep up…
Yes, I’m yelling “Don’t click!” across the house. to my husband. And then I clicked this morning.
It happens to the best of us…
Ugh! Indeed it does. I laughed about a college friend of my daughter’s. He was valedictorian in high school and was accepted into med school. He emptied his bank account and bought Apple gift cards. That’s because he got a “call” from the IRS saying he needed to do that to pay a fine!
My husband’s uncle fell for that “buy a gift card to bail your grandchild out of jail” scam. He swore he spoke to his grandson, but of course it wasn’t.
Isn’t that frightening?
It is.
The scams come to my phone that I have a UPS package when I do have one arriving usually. It is disconcerting. I also find I must be careful at work with scams and checking.
We keep getting that UPS scam, too. And it always seems to coincide with a package that we do have coming.
Wife and I sell things on FB marketplace. We occasionally get fake messages that something we listed was reported as violating standards. Believable, though, because marketplace has weird rules and inconsistent enforcement.
It is tough to spot the scams. Plus the rules are inconsistent. I thought the copyright violation could be because our fundraiser is named “Casino Royale” after the Bond movie.
There are so many scams out there, and they are getting better and better at fooling us. We need to be extra-skeptical. It’s sad that we can’t trust as easily anymore.
It is sad. Yes, the scams are getting tougher to spot! They used to have incorrect grammar, misspelled words and fuzzy logos. This one looked like it came from Meta.
I’ve had emails that look genuine from PayPal – even after I double checked the sending address. The bad English was a giveaway, plus the incorrect information about my PayPal account.
I get phony invoices all the time, but they’re quite obvious.
Paypal is getting better at looking legitimate. I often get phishing from them saying they are charging me hundreds of dollars for something. I rarely use Paypal so I know it’s not real.
I would be crazy if so many hawks were hanging around my yard. I think they are majestic but I hate to see them hunting the small birds. I’ve even seen our hawks take out a few doves and that was horrible.
Glad you figured that out before giving away info EA. I’m always wary anymore and I get numerous scam texts like your husband regarding packages that can’t be delivered. The places that I shop online however are not allowed to send text notification, only email so that always puts me on alert as probable scammers right away. I have had them even try to impersonate the post office- like the official USPS. I remember the first one I got like that and I almost clicked on it. When I was still working, because it was healthcare and a huge corporation we had to regularly renew classes on all sorts of IT stuff- phishing and scams being a big one. I learned a lot about what to look for, especially in emails that are sketchy. That why I refuse text notifications from almost all sites. It keeps the chances of getting caught off guard to a lower number I think, at least for me.
I love watching the hawks. Fortunately I have never seen them kill any small birds. When we first moved here, one picked up a quail and crashed into the window. The quail got away and the hawk survived. The window didn’t!
The quail, doves, woodpeckers and cardinals are wise to them. As soon as the hawks soar overhead and before they land, the smaller birds are gone. Also, I may get a lot of photos of hawks, but they only stay for a few minutes. I hear their call, which almost sounds like a cat, and I grab my camera.
You’re lucky you had classes on phishing and scams. Also, you’re smart to refuse text notifications. I may
I remember that story about the hawk and the window! Not a good thing 🙂 The small birds go totally silent inside whatever bush they can find but the hawks here know that. I have seen hawks literally jump and dive bomb directly into a bush to try to get a bird. They are relentless. I’ve always refused most notifications simply because I don’t want to be bothered as most places/sites just go overboard. The ability to then recognize scams came as a bonus 🙂
We have so much wilderness around us, I’m sure the hawks are doing their damage out in the wild at the nature’s preserve or the National Forest adjacent to the preserve. I need to get a little more savvy to the scams.
Ugh! I hate that there are so many phishing scams out there. I am glad you caught yourself before falling for it!
I get emails saying how if I don’t send money, there will be videos of me that I wouldn’t want seen sent to my contacts. I just trash the email as soon as I get it. Crazy!
Wow. I haven’t heard of that email one. How awful is that!
It is bad and I am sure it haa worked on some. I forgot to say that the email says they hacked your computer and found the video. Its basically an email trying to blackmail you and just so wrong!! I am sure they have people fall for it.
That is the worst scam I have heard so far.
I’ve heard of people getting such notifications on ig and other sites. All a scam
It’s scary to know I was almost scammed.
But you took a second look.
Thankfully!
👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼
Scammers are getting good. I err on the side of something being fake
I normally do, too. This took me by surprise. It made me realize I’m not above getting scammed.
I’ve taken to emailing company separately. This happened to me with apple. Really really convincing email
I haven’t seen an apple one — yet. Good idea to email!
That is crazy, and horrible. I’m glad you realized it sooner than later. I get the USPS texts all the time….oh, and I get them from Sunpass too, saying my account is overdue. (surpass is the transponders in our cars to get through tollways) People will go to great lengths to steal from us…such a pity.
I get texts for FasTrak which is our car transponder for when we lived in California. I fell for it, but instead of clicking on the fake link, went to the website. The first message on their website, was to beware of the scam! I closed out the account since we moved to Arizona.