With the advent of email, many scammers now use bulk email to send out various scams.
One of the first things to check for emails is apparent misspellings. One reason for this is that scammers may be looking for people who are too busy or overwhelmed to see such errors, or English is not their primary language.
A sense of Urgency, such as a time limit or phrases like “treat as Urgent” or “you have three days until we permanently disable your account.”
below is a list of links to the standard scam emails.
Common email scams
Demanding payment
This is normally claiming to be from a company you used, and someone has made a purchase that costs thousands of dollars, which you don’t remember making.
Or that you have an unexpected bill, typically they use phrasing like “if this is not you, please call the number or click the link you have 24 hours to cancel”.
What they want
There will be two options here. They will include a helpful button saying, please click here. This will lead to a website that could install Malware or ask for your login details to the website.
They may also include a phone number to call, which would lead to a scam call centre.
What to do
If in doubt, do not phone or click any of the links in the email, but go to the company website to see if they have a contact number.
Do not trust any information in the email!
Claiming to be from my Bank
This email claims to be from your bank, claiming you owe money or have outstanding payments. In some cases.
One such case is that a large payment is going out of your account, and you need to call your bank to cancel it again. The wording here would be made to give you a sense of urgency.
The number in the email does not lead to your bank but rather to a scam call centre.
What they want
Normally, they want access to your bank account details. They can do this by getting you to click the link on the email or call the scam centre.
The best course of action
Do not trust any information in the email!
Contact your bank if you are unsure using the details on the website.
You need to claim your money.
Another scam is someone has died, usually a prince or a member of the royal family and left you lots of money or you have been chosen to receive a cash gift or have won the lotto.
The other common phrasing is someone has a bank account where they need to transfer the money to someone out of the bank because the owner had died normally; they use the phrase “100% risk-free”.
What they want
Normally, these scams aim to get you to pay a transfer fee so they can deposit the moment, or some fee for the paperwork, which grows the more the scammer pulls you in.
The best course of action
The phase if it is too good to be true, then most likely it is. Block the address and delete the email.
Charity request
Scammers are not nice people, and after a major catastrophic event, they post on social media and emails claiming to be from a charity for the cause and requesting cash to help the victims.
Best to check the charity the UK has, the Charity Commission here:
https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-search
What they want
Your money in the hope they also take your trust in humanity.
The best course of action
If possible, report the post or email and block the sender. Also, I hope that they constantly stub their toe.
