Sucked into a $600 email fraud!

[Raven]

So, I get an email from an old dear female friend, Jane, asking if she can email me to ask for a favour. I see her proper email address and photo. Looks very legit. I reply. She asks if I would buy $200 worth of Google Play cards at a store for a young friend she has in hospital because Jane and her husband are traveling and not able to do that herself. I should photo the card and email it to this person from Jane. I know this is exactly what Jane would do for someone in hospital, and I know Jane and her husband travel a lot. I do not hesitate to help Jane. Yet, I have no idea what a Google Play card is. I search Amazon.com and send Jane a screen shot to confirm the right play card. Jane replies. So, I go to a local  store and buy such a card, photo the back code number, and email it to the person in "hospital" with a friendly greeting from Jane. I blind copy my "friend", Jane, to show her I have done this. I know Jane will pay me back. That hospital person replies and thanks Jane.

Next day I get another email from my Jane with a wonderful message how grateful the person in hospital was, and could I do the same for TWO more $200 cards. I reply I will not be able to go to the store today. Can Jane wait a day? Another nice reply, but an odd choice of words.
Jane says her wifi service is poor where she is. So, I do the same. I buy and email two cards to the person in hospital.

I ask Jane to e-transfer me the $600. Jane replies that she will mail a cheque. Also understandable as Jane is not a high tech, e-transfer type of person at 60+ years of age.

Then I get another email from Jane if I could do that again for $800, and what is my address so she can mail me the cheque? Now, I notice the email sender address behind Jane's name is different. And why are you asking me the 3rd time. Her 40 year old son would have done this, but he died last year. So I feel a bit guilty not to help. But this time I phone her to confirm the situation, and find out Jane knows nothing about this!! And several of her other friends have been approached the same way! Who knows how many?

I immediately phone VISA ( 70 minutes on hold!) to cancel the pending transactions. They tell me I have to go to the store to do that in the morning. The retailer says they can do nothing as the transactions have gone through and I have already emailed the Play Card code at the back.

I call the AntiFraud office (Canada). They only record information and do not investigate! And their recording says they are too busy today to talk with a live person.

I call the police to lodge a complaint. There is nothing they can do. Even though I have three emails from this hospital person, and they are waiting for me to send them the next $800 Play Cards. Couldn't I lead them on? They suggest not to undertake such an action.

I call my phone service provider to ask if anything can be done to track down the 3 emails I have received - My friend's original address, a gmail address, and an iCloud address. They cannot take any action other than I should let Jane know what has happened.

I email Jane to talk to her and husband. No reply. Then I phone her. She is shocked and has not received ANY of my emails!
She now has to completely change her email address because someone has hacked into her contact list. I am now very wary to email her at all.

End of story -  No one can do anything to stop this *\%&#! perp? So they get to continue this BS ad infinitum?
An expensive lesson that cost me $600!

Hope this helps someone here to learn from my gaff! I do feel 2% better by venting here. 




 

[krissel]

Sorry to hear you got snookered by this scam. There have been several articles lately about how prevalent these are.


A few years ago my father nearly got taken by the one where someone pretends to be a relative who had an emergency and needed money. Fortunately I intervened before any money was committed. These scum don't care who they attack or what the consequences are for their schemes.

[Highmac]

We got caught a couple of years ago with the "free sample, just pay for P&P" (post and packing). 


Of course they then had our bank details and we had missed the tiny print under the huge, bright 'pay now' banner. In the tiny print, we had set up a monthly direct debit 


Fortunately we keep an eye on our bank statements and were able to cancel the card, but not before we had been caught for a couple of hundred pounds. Because they had actually sent a tiny pot of some unheard of brand, we could not take any action even if it WAS possible to track them down!


Another lesson learned the hard way. It's not wise to trust ANY advert which appears suddenly from the side of your screen...

[Xairbusdriver]

First, remember that an email is just plain text, you should be able to look at one and see the same text that your mail app shows you. Even if it is 'styled', it is just html, which is also just plain text! Images can be a bit trickier, that's why I always have remote images blocked in Mail's Prefs.

Alway assume there is never, ever anything secure or truthful about an un-encrypted email. Never trust it to be from who it says it is. The least you can do is to look at the raw source of the message (option+command+U in Apple Mail). Look at the first line of the display labeled "Return path". If that is not the same as your known good address for you friend or the expected company name, you have warning #1.

Further down in the Raw Display could be info on any links [html = <a href=...>displayed text in email]. Look for the same text in the Raw Display as in the text link in the email. The Raw Display will show you the actual URL [href="..."]. In Mail, you can usually also see that with control click. If that URL is not clearly the name of the company it claims, you have warning #2.

If the appeal is for money/cash card or for more personal info, you have a big red flag and warning #3.

Lastly, if you see some text like '< img src=..."', you have found a link to a graphic. If the URL is not an expected company or is dozens of characters long, you may have warning #4. That "image" may very well be a trojan, malware, etc.

As what we have repeated, ad nauseam, never, ever click on any unverified (by you) link in any un-encrypted email.

Use the tools your app provides, always be untrusting, verify but carry a big stick! emails are not for financial/personal information transfers.

[Raven]

Sad part is no one can stop or is willing to stop these email scams. And these low lives continue to do their dirty business uninterrupted.

[LR827]

Scams abound, and this is just one example. I am sorry enough to offer to send you $10 (ten USD) in the hope that other TS'ers may do the same, more or less. Perhaps we can make you whole again. I can send this to you via Venmo, Apple Pay or Paypal. Just let me know where to send it.

[Xairbusdriver]

Speaking of SCAMs...
"Technology" has been harnessed in ways many never expected and your "social" activities led the way.The American Prospect, Apr. 4, 2022:

Illegal gambling was always a closed market, controlled mostly by organized crime. In what was previously the only legalized space, the big casinos in Las Vegas held sway. Today, stripped of any resemblance to old-school bookie operations, betting platforms like DraftKings and FanDuel are now cast in the image of Big Tech, while backed with Wall Street funding and laundered with the stamp of the law. These corporations combine the technology of high-frequency trading, the immersive consumer experience of day-trading apps like Robinhood, and the addiction business model of social media. They represent a true Frankenstein’s monster of the 21st-century economy...

Among those companies acquiring bettors’ personal information were Facebook, Google, and a host of surveillance tech brokers such as Signal and Lovation...

The key partner with the NFL on in-game data is Amazon Web Services.

One of the biggest frauds perpetrated on Internet users has been "social media" and the lack of understanding on peoples part in freely supplying information on themselves.

[Highmac]

If I DO have to use Google or Amazon, I always use Safari's Private Window and make sure I close the tab afterwards.


I just don't use FaceBook.

[Frances144]

People are bar-stewards. I am so sorry for you xx

[jchuzi]

People are bar-stewards. I am so sorry for you xx

What does that epithet mean? Please enlighten an ignorant American!

[Frances144]

A polite way of saying “bastards”!