I just watched a video on Facebook - a woman’s testimony before a Senate Committee on Aging. It was the one where a guy called and claimed to have kidnapped her daughter. Her daughter “spoke” to her on the phone, sobbing hysterically. The woman said, “It WAS her voice!” She wired a lot of money before realizing she’d been taken. I guess the bad guys used AI to duplicate the daughter’s voice. Really scary.
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Dang—last night, checking through spam & trash, I saw what LOOKED like a message from my domain provider for our website, claiming we allowed our domain to expire without paying. I put it back in my inbox without opening (don’t like to do things late at night when my brain is sleepy).
This morning, I went to my desktop and went to my domain account through the regular domain website and saw that my domains are paid up for several more months but just to be safe, I paid them up for another 12 months for under $40 for my nonprofit.
I looked more closely at the email and noticed that on the desktop email, it showed that the email it was sent from was “unverified” and suspicious, which was why the email server had put it in spam to begin with! I’m glad I waited until this morning to sort it all out. The spammers and pfishers are getting trickier and trickier and best to sort things out with a clear head in the morning than late at night when sleepy. I’m glad I went to the website I KNEW is my domain registry rather than anything in the suspect email.
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I just finished a new book called The Yahoo Boys by Carlos Barragan, a writer for the NYT. It’s about the Nigerians who try to scam unwitting Americans (mostly) and get them to send gift cards, etc. It was eye-opening. The Nigerian boys do it because there are absolutely no jobs that pay anything reasonable in Nigeria. And the people in the US get sucked in because they are terribly lonely and the Nigerian boys pretend to listen to them and care.
It was a pretty good read.
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Here’s an interview of the author of Yahoo Boys.
Thank you, @HImom . Very interesting.
Got a Punchbowl evite from a casual friend I haven’t heard from in ages, out of the blue. I deleted it. I heard it’s a pfishing scam, where they try to get your email username & password or other info.
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Yes, I’ve gotten two of those.
I’ve been getting emails from GloveBox saying I have a new insurance document to review.
Did my insurance agent send me a message months ago saying they had set up a GloveBox account for communication? Yes.
Am I going to touch that link with a 10 foot pole? Nope. If I want to look at the document I can log in to my insurance account directly.
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I got the same email. Did not open it
So yesterday I paid my Costco Citibank Visa online. Today I got an email – that appears to be legit – telling me I haven’t logged on to that account in a while and I should click here to log in. The email has my name, account number ending in XXXX, the date I opened the account – everything. But I’m still suspicious, so I didn’t click on the link. Bizarre.
ETA: I forwarded the email to Citibank with the explanation as to why it seems spammy.
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I’m 100% sure that’s spam. Why would they send you a notice that you haven’t signed in when have? Or send a sign on page rather than suggesting you go directly to their site? Good idea reporting it.
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I received this warning from one of my healthcare providers (many providers are using MyChart now)
We are aware of a nationwide scam involving emails and text messages that appear to come from MyChart but are actually fraudulent. Some of these scam messages advertise a free “MyChart Medicare Kit” or “Senior Health Package.” Fraudulent MyChart emails may ask you to click a button or a link to provide your personal information.
Also see:
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I’m particularly concerned for our parents’ generation, who are more vulnerable to scams like these that target the elderly.
I can easily see my mom (who’s in her mid-80s) falling for something like this, believing it to be a legitimate MyChart message. 
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My mom & dad couldn’t even do MyChart. They were in their 90s. They let me create and use their accounts. I was NOT their medical proxy but did most of the communication with their healthcare professionals, on MyChart and in person and on the phone.
I got a few motives that iCloud needed updated credit card info or I’d lose all data. It’s charged to a credit card that is fine, so I’m hoping it’s a scam
I got the same spam email about my iCloud storage yesterday. Definitely a scam!
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My new one today was to claim my half million dollars of debt relief. We have no debt. I’m pretty sure nobody is giving me half a million for nothing.
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The first thing to check is the “from” email address. Not what it displays, but what the actual email address is (you can usually see this by clicking on the “from” name). In most cases, it’s an email domain that’s unrelated to the company the email is purported to be from.
But that can be spoofed, so if the domain looks right you can then hover over the link to check the URL. If it’s not the company’s actual domain, then it’s spam. Don’t be fooled by variations like “i.cloud.com”!
Even better, log in directly to the official website and check if there’s a problem.
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My bff is 87. I have trained her to call me when she gets a message from someone not in her contact list, or any message that resembles those like all the ones listed above. She does, and every time I say “It’s a scam” and explain the “trigger” (click here, open this, did you just buy…etc.) she now calls “I’m pretty sure it’s a scam, but…” so she’s catching the clues as well.
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Scammed again. Not scammed really, as I had no input at all. Apparently my Paypal account was hacked, I dunno. I don’t even use Paypal anymore except for one recurring charge, to my charge card, for a subscription. No, no, THIS was debiting $3000+ from my bank account. No email notification of the “transaction” from Paypal, recipients not identified other than names, no contact info. Blah, blah, blah Paypal can do nothing to help me. Needless to say, I am livid. I immediately took added security precautions, deleted my bank account info. My bank is working on trying to stop payment. I pray they succeed. The debits from my account was the only way I knew it had happened. Again, zero email notification, as usually happens, from Paypal.
Just makes me sick.
I want to live on a deserted island. With nothing digital. Just deliver me some food and books every month and I’ll be fine. I hate “today”. Nothing is safe.
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