The Texts Are a Lie
It’s one of the worst things about having an email address; the unbelievably unbelievable scam email. Your email provider will shut down your account if you don’t forward this to 20 people, a petition will be sent to the US President to save the whales, someone wants to transfer $30 million to your bank account. Who falls for this crap? Being duped into forwarding an email (and risking the ire of your less e-challenged friends) isn’t nearly as bad as losing money. According to this source; (be warned, it’s a PDF) in 2005, 24% of internet scams were initiated by email, compared to just 6% in 2003. Seems like there are a lot of idiots in cyberspace.
I’m sure you’ll all be pleased to know that scams have spread to text messages, or at least they have in Australia. Scammers are pretending to be hired hitmen and are trying to extort thousands of Aussie dollars from their victims. Here’s an example of one of the messages: “Someone paid me to kill you. If you want me to spare you, I’ll give you two days to pay $5000. If you inform the police or anybody, you will die, I am monitoring you.” The “hitmen” also provide payment details and an email address to their victims. Do people believe the messages? The police won’t provide any details, which suggests that they might. Oh dear.
What should you do if you receive one of these texts? The police advise the following: “These SMS messages to mobiles should be ignored and (we) stress that money should not be sent nor contact made with the scammers.” Another PSA: your bank doesn’t have a Hotmail account.
Source: Mercury
Tags: SMS
