If you’ve been following my Substack for any time, you would know that I had a childhood friend that was scammed out of serious money, thinking he was talking to me on Facebook and investing in some crypto scam. Fraud is all over the internet is several forms, costing just the US close to an estimated $9 Billion per year. Being a somewhat public figure these days with over 50K followers on X (Twitter), I’m as good a target as any. I decided to make this “Thoughts” article about some of the scams and phishing attempts that come in every day to my computer. My comments will be found below and hopefully make for light, but educational reading.
First, what I call the Chase scam. Examples below:
I only showed two of these. I have 5 in my spam folder from the last few days. First, this is a really easy scam for me to spot, since I HAVE NEVER HAD A CHASE ACCOUNT! Logo looks great, but the email address (backing@fundacjaukraina.eu) is the tip-off. Who thinks that a multi-national company like Chase would ever send out a notice from backing@fundacjaukraina.eu? The message tries to get me to hit the “Update My Account” button which may drop a virus into my computer or ask me to fill out a form with my personal information that the scammer then uses to steal money. DON’T CLICK ON THE BUTTON!
The scammers can take this to a higher level of sophistication, should they actually have the energy and desire to do so. Check out this one, similar to the Chase scam, but with the international money transfer firm, wise.com, which I do use. I also have a similar email in spam doing the same thing with an American Express notification.
Note that this time the URL is support.com. Better choice of URL and sounds legit, but any email coming from Wise.com would have a wise.com URL on the email address, so I have no idea where it is coming from. In addition, I know that wise.com has all my information already, so there would be zero need for them to confirm anything. IT’S A PHISHING OR VIRUS ATTEMPT. DON’T CLICK ON THE CONFIRM BUTTON!
Next up, the old Pay You Money scam. In this game, the scammer sends you an innocuous notice that appears to be trying to give you money. In the process of responding to the great news, they’ll need to verify that you are who you say you are, they’ll want lots of information that can be later used to steal from you.
DON’T RESPOND TO THESE EMAILS PROCLAIMING THAT YOU’VE GOT SOME MONEY POTENTIALLY COMING YOUR WAY!
Then there’s the flip version of the payment to you. It’s the confirmation of a recent purchase that you did not make. Here’s an example from a LifeLock imposter, but I get them a lot from Geek Squad, appliance companies and warranty firms.
First thing to do is to check where the email it came from. At a minimum a LifeLock email would logically come from lifelock.com, not from kassem.schenker@gmail.com, whoever that is! Secondly, say you have a LifeLock account. You are already being billed automatically from them, so you need not concern yourself with notices like this. Everything is auto-billed. The chances are you call these people at the number listed and get asked for a lot of personal info to “verify your identity.” They then get the data and do something nefarious with it. DON’T CALL THE TOLL FREE NUMBER!
Next up: Hello There or hi. Here we’ll have someone out of blue just send me a text message, email, direct message, etc. saying something like Hello there or Hi, how’s it going? Check out this email below:
This Brett Rijkers has an email of goodluck456ssc@gmail.com. I do not know this person nor do I have him in any contact database. He seems to think that clicking on the link may repair all of my current complications. I wasn’t aware that I even had any current complications. My life seems to be smoothing along nicely, thank you very much. I get a ton of direct messages and emails as you would expect with my social media presence. Legit messages will be “Hi Tom, I have a question for you. How do you trade….” Messages that get deleted are, “Hi”. See the difference? DO NOT RESPOND TO DIRECT MESSAGES THAT JUST SAY HI. DO NOT CLICK ON LINKS LIKE THE ONE ABOVE. WHO KNOWS WHAT HAPPENS TO YOUR COMPUTER IF YOU DO!
The last one we’ll cover in this article are the I’d like to be your friend scam. I’ve actually had one relative fall for this one. You get an email similar to the one below. Seems innocent enough, although it’s kind of strange sending it to me, a happily married guy. Definitely not fluent in English!
Hello charming man! Dear the stranger, I wish the nobility, as you are interested in searches and to meet with new and class the woman? My name Botagoz. I wish to believe, that you from me in delight. I search the man with whom my life to change to the best. I very much cheerful, kind and optimistical the girl. But I one now and I very much have got tired from such life. So I have addressed in agency of acquaintances and have written to you the letter. Actually, I search serious the man for serious relations and a combination marriage further. My purpose - to find love. I very much hope, that you this man. I will be happy if we find our common interests, and our acquaintance - the most great moment in our future. At present I do not know, as is strong have interest in continuation our conversation, for this reason in more details I will tell about myself in the following letter. With impatience I wait your letter with big impatience.
If you are interested in me Please answer ONLY to my private e-mail: Botagoz_le@outlook.com
All kind,Botagoz.
Here are the photos from four emails over the course of two days. Same text in the email with different photos.
So, the scam is you respond to the email, they start a conversation with you and who knows were they take it. One of my distant relatives actually sent a piece of jewelry to the scammer after carrying on a conversation with her for a while. Here’s the email addresses:
syouhei-@vmail.plala.or.jp
yokoyama-c@apost.plala.or.jp
yoshihiko.oomura@nifty.com
civ36510@rio.odn.ne.jp
Judging from the URLs on these emails, there’s some people in Japan with too much time on their hands. I wonder if the model gets a piece of the action???
Good Practices
First never give money or personal information to people that contact you over the internet. Take down information and check them out independently before continuing a conversation on any topic.
Always look at the email address of the person sending you the email. Ninety percent of the scams can be detected from an email address having nothing whatsoever to do with the company supposedly sending you the notice.
Realize that in the world of subscriptions and auto-pays, there is likely little reason for any company verify anything about your account. When you set the account up, information fields are already verified immediately. Any verification attempts are likely trying to get to your personal information.
So, the internet is great, but you have to keep your wits about you while you enjoy the ride!
Tom, I used to oversee branches for a small regional bank and we dealt with customers getting scammed all day long. I even had to stop my own mother from wiring $30k to a fraudster a few years ago. Sadly, it seems all the info about scams just gets lost on some people and the persistence of the crooks to find one or two vulnerable people pays off. Thanks for the post.
Thanks Tom! I shared this via email to my mother in law. She has gotten scammed a few times on the internet.
PS The sexy photos are always a dead give away lol!!