The Award Winning Place for Plain English Explanations of Internet Stuff
Every webmail service out there, be it Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, or other, encourages you to upload or merge your contacts with their system. And most Mac and PC email programs automatically cross-reference an incoming email sender with their entry in your contacts. The result is often that their contact profile picture, and ‘friendly’ name, is displayed as the sender of that email in your inbox.
If you have received a text message claiming to be from Netflix, and telling you that “We have a new policy in place, please visit and review today”, along with a link and, possibly, a random set of characters in parenthesis such as “(ybpldcjyop)”, it is definitely a scam, do NOT click on it! The text message may also appear to come from phone number 141-010-0001 or just 410100001, but even if it comes from another number, it is definitely a scam.
By now, in 2018, most people know that rental scams on Craigslist abound. But how to tell a Craigslist rental scam is not as well known. Below is an example of a Craigslist rental scam. The scammer calls himself Bob Osell, claims to be renting the house located at 2237 Kay St. in Longmont, Colorado, and to be reachable at (760)2378225.
WARNING: A mass SMS text message scam went out this afternoon that reads basically: “FRM: Account Service MSG: You are required to accept the new Terms of Service now:” and then it gives you a shortened link such as https://goo.gl/hdDpNE. The sample we received is from the phone number 1410200502, but yours may say something different.
There is an evil new phishing spam going around that is using Google Docs to do its dirty work. The subject is along the lines of “(Someone) has shared a document on Google Docs with you” – in many of the samples it is ‘Brett Schager has shared a document on Google Docs with you.” Many of the samples are also sent “to” hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh@mailinator.com (you receive it because you are in the bcc: field).
If you received a text message or email telling you that “Account might be blocked for your security!” DON’T click on any link or respond to it! The spam message comes from text-pp.com-servicesupport@lsg.org, which should be a tip-off, but in case you’re not sure, it’s a scam!
A new malware scam is hitting email inboxes. The email sample that we have comes from an email address at thomaskeller.com (ours is specifically from gcromwell@thomaskeller.com), and claims to have received an invoice from your company. They even include your company name in the email, making it seem more legit. But it isn’t.
Members of USAA insurance and banking programs have been receiving email that appears to come from USAA (which stands for United Services Automobile Association), but which are actually phishing scams. The scam email comes from the nonexistent domain usaaservice.com (such as from “USAA.ServiceAccount@usaaservice.com”).
The Internet Patrol has been alerted to a new email scam which appears to be an invoice from Apple. Of course, they don’t expect you to pay it, they expect you to be alarmed at the supposed charge, so that you log in to your Apple account, and they can steal your credentials. Don’t fall for it.
The State Bar of California has issued an alert warning of a fraudulent complaint email being sent in their name. In an emailed statement this morning (June 8, 2016), the California State Bar said that it had received numerous inquiries about the email that supposedly had come from them, going out to members of the California bar.
Here is a twist on the usual 419 advance-fee scams: the scammer signs up for something such as a newsletter, and then replies to the confirmation email with their scam. We know this, because we were hit with just such a scam from “Steve McCoy”, using the email address stevecoy61@gmail.com.
If you are on Facebook you can’t avoid them. The “She’s gone” ads, suggesting that celebrities like Sally Fields, Betty White, Meryl Streep, Sandra Bullock, Susan Sarandon, and Kris Jenner, have died (they haven’t), with the weird domain names, are everywhere. Click on them, and each and every one of them leads not to news that they have died (surprise, surprise) but a website selling Beauty and Truth (oh, the irony) brand youth serum.
A brand new SMS text message scam has hit smartphones. Coming from prvs=1846e0b0b3=kross@bloodsystems.org, it is an image of text, which reads “CONFIDENTIAL Mrs Thorens has assigned a rewarding charity project worth $2.5 Million USD to you. For full details, please contact her only at her private email address below.” The sample that we saw had an email address of mav22@rogers.com, although it’s quite likely that as that email address gets shut down, the scammers will swap in a different email address.