Just a Word of Caution
I have today received a scam email, purporting to come from Mike Barrett.
Some scammer must have access to his address book or mine. I have not been able to contact Mike.
If you receive any such email, you might be well advised to delete immediately without responding.
Perhaps absence from rides is making me paranoid.
Best wishes and cave!
Jeff Tollerman
(They really are out to get you.)
5 comments:
Jeff, thank you for the warning. Mike has been in touch on WhatsApp to say that he is aware his email has been "cloned" with a very similar email address. He is in the process of sorting it out but for the moment please don't use email to contact Mike.
He asks that you use WhatsApp or text.
It is a timely warning to us all that unexpected emails (or phone calls) even from people we know, or companies such as our bank / taxman should be treated with extreme caution.
Yes, sorry guys but I have been scammed. It's quite a clever one. It appears to be from me (@sky.com)but if you look at the reply/destination address it is going to a hotmail.com ... I haven't received emails into the account since Friday. Timing for me couldn't have been worse as my dad has been ill for some time and on Friday the medics told me he would pass away in the next 24 hours... he died early on Saturday morning and any emails to me are being diverted to the scammed account not mine... and I understand they are sending out emails from my Sky email address asking amongst other things/scams if you can help because my daughter has cancer.., those that know me know I don’t have a daughter but if you weren't sure...
On the bright side, I am planning to join the A ride this week. Best wishes. Mike
Mike,
I'm so sorry to hear of the sad loss of your father. To lose contact with the hospital at such a time is most distressing. I'm sure that you have all our sympathy, and we look forward to seeing you soon.
Jeff
Guys and Girls,
For your information, I have now received another dangerous scam email, promoting a get quick rich scheme, purporting to come from Graham Hill of C&M, who according to his new email address is it seems now a student of Alexandria University in Egypt. He really does get about!
Am I the only one getting these scam emails, or am I really paranoid?
Please do not answer that question. I won't believe you.
Yours,
Formerly known as Jeff
Hi folks
On further investigation, I have established that the account that led to my hack was my Just Giving account, how ironic is that!!
The bad news is that I was hacked on a 6 digit password for JG but the good news is that I hardly used that password on any other accounts. I have since changed my password (and my email address) on many accounts and ... and having reset my JG password they now require a 12 digit password as standard!!
It has been/is frustrating sorting this out, especially as my father passed away on Saturday but it is a salutory lesson in maybe getting a little bit lazy about online security and not updating or changing passwords from time to time ... and DO NOT use the same password all the time. If you are hacked once, I suspect they could/would try that password on a number of your accounts or pass it on to other scumbags.
Please make it as difficult as you can to get hacked and equally don't trust/open anything that you think might be slightly dodgy. You will almost certainly be right!!
Jeff, you are not paranoid but you are not alone out there!!
Here endeth the lesson. Best wishes and it was really good to see so many familiar faces on Wednesday. Good people are good for the soul. Mike
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