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Scam emails

Avatar Annie Allan
I’m not sure if this is one that any of you can help with but if not I hope someone can point me in the right direction.
Yesterday I received an email from a friend showing their correct email address. It asked if we could email but said they couldn’t talk. I replied that I had no problem with that and sent a bit of chat back. They responded that they were pleased I could help so I wrote back that they hadn’t told me what they wanted help with. This was the response:

“Happy to hear from you. I need to get an Apple eGift Card sent to my niece, It's her one year of beating cancer, and I've tried to order it online but my card was declined. I promised her as a gift I'm currently in the hospital because of my throat pain caused by laryngitis. Could you help me order it online from Amazon or Apple through her email? I'll reimburse you once I get back home. Hope to hear from you soon. Thanks Tony”

Immediately I recognised a scam and sent back ‘NO!’ and reported it to Action Fraud.

My question is: how can a scammer send and receive messages on someone else’s email address?

I’m now going to be distrustful of every email I receive since I can’t be sure who’s sending it.

Has anyone else experienced this and is there a way to easily identify the email isn’t genuine?

Re: Scam emails

Avatar Trevor Hewson
Yes, I got a similar e-mail a week or two ago. I almost responded but the ‘can we chat by email, can’t call at the moment’ seemed a bit odd. In the end I binned it. Thankyou for confirming I did the right thing, and well done for bailing out of the exchange before any harm was done.

These scammers are definitely getting cleverer.

Re: Scam emails

Avatar Mick Burrell
Was the Reply To address the address of your friend?

Re: Scam emails

Avatar Annie Allan
Yes. And that’s the odd thing. I had an exchange back and forth with this person before I realised all was not well. When I texted my friend instead he said that other friends have called him to tell him similar. I did Google the issue and it was suggested that the password for the email account might have been compromised. It’s a BT account. I assume that since our Apple email accounts are within our Apple accounts, protected by our Apple IDs that we’re safer?

Re: Scam emails

Avatar Mick Burrell
If the Reply address was shown as his address (double check the address used for the emails you sent to the scammer), it sounds as if his BT account has been hacked and a diversion put on so that all mail addressed to him gets diverted to the scammer. The scammer may have changed his password but if not, your friend could log in, delete the redirection then change his password to stop the scammer getting back in.

Re: Scam emails

Avatar Annie Allan
Thank you very much for that information Mick. The reply address was identical to my friend’s email address. I’ve sent him the information.
Would I be right in thinking that as long as our Apple ID password is strong and kept private, our Apple email should be safe from this sort of attack?

Re: Scam emails

Avatar Mick Burrell
Probably.

Obviously your email address can be picked up from the (Windows?) machine of anyone you've ever emailed or any website you've used it to sign in with that subsequently gets hacked but without further information, I don't see that a scammer could get into the account and redirect mail i.e. he/she could write to people using your address but probably not receive their replies.

It's not difficult to send email using any address but I'd better not explain how on here ;-)
 
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