WARNING

I think Les Williams's email has been hacked. I just received the following, supposedly from him. If anyone else gets one, IGNORE IT!



David,

I am currently out of town until 15th February and I have limited
access to pick up my emails or phone calls.

Here is what I want you to do as i am busy, & I can't make or receive
call at the moment. I have been working on incentives recently and I
aimed at surprising some of our diligent officers with gift cards this
week and this should be between us until they all get their cards

Please follow these instructions;

1. Walk into any store close to you e.g Tesco, BP, Co-op

2. Purchase ?500 AMAZON GIFT CARDS (5x ?100) from the agent with cash
at hand as I need them in physical card.

3. Scratch the back out and attach the scanned pictures showing the
PIN via this email

4. Attach the purchase receipt.

Can you get it done today and you will be reimbursed back

Apologies for any inconvenience.
Les

It's definitely been hacked David, unfortunately this gift card scam is becoming more and more common. Also, there's the classic signs of a scam mail there, trying to create a sense of urgency but also spelling/grammar mistakes.

At Les's request I checked the header - it turns out it's not him, but someone impersonating him using a similar email address.

Most of these emails don't actually need your email to have been hacked. It is quite straightforward to impersonate someone else's email address when sending email (not receiving) given the design of email. Most modern spam filters can identify those though.

Sent from my moto g(6) play using Tapatalk

Treat the 'from' email address on an email with the same level of trust you would treat the 'return to' address on a real letter. The principle is basically the same.

What's a "letter", other than a character on a keyboard?  :tease:

These things are worse than coronavirus

Alex said:

What's a "letter", other than a character on a keyboard?  :tease:

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It is an antiquated method of communication that required considerable effort on the part of the person preparing it.
Amusingly, this person would commit a lot of time ? possibly several hours ? to its preparation. This would include finding pen, paper, envelope, stamp. Also involved was regular checking of spelling, punctuation etc. to avoid possible insult to the recipient by giving the impression that the subject was of little importance to the sender and/or that the presentation had been poorly thought out.
Then of course there was a trip to something called a post box!
It seems likely that in the course of all this many (perhaps most) of these letters would be abandoned because the person would realise that the information it would convey did not justify the effort.
Thankfully, with modern technology very little of this now goes on.  :tease:

Meaning unconsidered gibberish gets "posted" by electronic means instead 

It's also worth pointing out, following on from Chocolate fireguard's point, that the envelope and stamp also technically function as paid-for encryption, given that it's generally impossible to read the contents even if it's in your hand (assuming you follow the 'moral code' of not ripping it open). Email is set up more like a postcard in that anyone who can get hold of the email can read it. Strangely, encrypted emails are still viewed with some suspicion, as is now WhatsApp, even though its encryption is there essentially just to provide 'privacy'. I installed PGP (encryption software so good that the CIA banned its 'export' - downloads from the US - and punishable by jail) years ago and had it running in my toolbar in Outlook, and simply clicking the button before sending meant it was totally encrypted and only readable by the recipient. Sadly I was unable to persuade more than one person to also install PGP, and so we'd just send encrypted emails to each other. A shame really as all we were doing was putting it in an 'envelope', but security agencies may have viewed us as behaving 'suspiciously'.

It's not all high-tech. I remember an aunt getting ripped off in the 1970s being persuaded to sell 'Holiday Magic' make-up to her neighbours for virtually zero commission once the sales and expenses were logged. Pyramid scams were all the rage, presumably negotiated at the golf club - or worse. Believe it or not, people also used to take sexual photographs on film, develop and print them in darkrooms and then post them to people in encrypted envelopes using Royal Mail. I believe in earlier days people may even have painted the subject and perhaps made sculptures too, though (necessarily) these were probably made from sketches.

Funny old world  :halo:

Naughty postcards were very popular with the Victorian gentry - pretty sure they didn't post them though!

Believe it or not, people also used to take sexual photographs on film, develop and print them in darkrooms and then post them to people in encrypted envelopes using Royal Mail.

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Believe it or not, people also used to take dubious photographs on film, send them off to be developed and printed by a commercial lab., and then wondered why they had a vist from the boys in blue.

David Rose said:

At Les's request I checked the header - it turns out it's not him, but someone impersonating him using a similar email address.

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One of you has had your address book hacked.

langcliffe said:

David Rose said:

At Les's request I checked the header - it turns out it's not him, but someone impersonating him using a similar email address.

Click to expand...

One of you has had your address book hacked.

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Nah. His email address is on the website, and a quick google search will give you several of his email addresses, his landline, mobile number and postal address

Oh dear!

2xw said:

langcliffe said:

David Rose said:

At Les's request I checked the header - it turns out it's not him, but someone impersonating him using a similar email address.

Click to expand...

One of you has had your address book hacked.

Click to expand...

Nah. His email address is on the website, and a quick google search will give you several of his email addresses, his landline, mobile number and postal address

Click to expand...

All true - but surely none of those will not say with whom he is email contact?