So, what rubbish emails and calls have there been to Brooklands Radio station in the last few days?

Another magic weight loss secret (this one is soup) that lets you lose up to 37 pounds in just 20 days. You’d have to have your mouth sewn shut to have any hope of achieving that speed of weight loss.

An email offering inclusion on a property deal in Leeds giving a 10% return. But it’s just a Marketing company looking for leads.

Apparently Brooklands Radio can get a free quote from a leading debt collection agency. We’re a volunteer organisation – no debts.

An email containing just a link to inboundreviews.com – but we also received two identical emails to people who don’t exist at the radio station. Simple spam messages.

An email from service-lead-data.link offering to help us find HMRC registered payroll service providers. We’re a volunteer organisation – no payroll.

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You receive an email that seems to be from order-update @amazon.com. It is addressed to my email address, not ‘unknown recipients’ or blank as most phishing emails are usually addressed.

The title is “Amazon.com – Your Cancellation 139-216896-257848336”

This looks genuine.

The email describes the cancellation of an order yesterday and the relevant book title and details.

There is a link to the order to review it and at the bottom of the email there is a link to Amazon.

Both of these links are fake – they go to davidestore.com which is clearly not Amazon.

These phishing emails look very professional – an exact match for Amazon emails and no spelling mistakes or poor grammar.

Many people use a family account for Amazon so may not immediately recognise the email to be fake.

Do not be tempted to click on the links to see what happens or unthinkingly believing it will get you to the relevant Amazon page – because it won’t. The link is to a fake version of an Amazon page and it just wants your Amazon access details so the thieves can plunder your Amazon account.

What about the fact that the email appears to be from Amazon?

The senders have ‘spoofed’ the Amazon address so the email does appear to be from Amazon. This is more difficult to do than the average scammer will bother with but some do use this spoofing technique to make their messages seem more genuine.  (http://www.fightbackonline.org/index.php/guidance/12-explanations/63-the-problem-of-fake-emails  tells you more about spoofing)

What should you do if you receive one of these phishing emails that seems to be from Amazon?

Amazon say the best approach is to send the phishing email as an attachment to [email protected] and they will be able to establish where the email originated and hopefully stop the perpetrators.

If you have any experiences with scammers, spammers or time-waster do let me know, by email.

The email title is “Lose 50 Kilos in 2 months”

That’s almost 1 kilo per day – pretty extreme. Plus, even amongst very overweight people – there’s only a small number would actually want to lose 50 kilos.

The tagline is “Just one pump is more effective than a full 6 mile run”

Supposedly the product also cleans all toxins from your body and you lose weight without having to watch what you eat.

Too good to be true?

Of course it is, so it’s a scam.

The majority of the email is taken up with reference to an American TV programme called the Shark Tank which is similar to Dragons Den in the UK. A bunch of business people assess new products and services brought to them by entrepreneurs seeking cash and  advice.

This product was on Shark Tank and received a mixed reception with some liking, some disliking and one calling it a scam.

Is the product any good?

You have to judge that for yourself (and the Shark Tank interview is on Youtube) but the following points may help:-

• The spray is basically a lot of vitamins – that’s fine as long as the doses are appropriate
• It contains a number of substances such as Caffeine and Guarana that some people believe can help with weight reduction, but there is a lack of proper scientific evidence to support this.
• The only direct evidence for the product is anecdotal i.e. some people who have used the product believe in it

The product continues to sell – so it has believers, but it’s not cheap and there is a lack of hard evidence of any effectiveness beyond that of standard vitamin supplements.

However, even if the product is genuine – do not click on the links in the spam emails, as these are almost certainly fake. If you want the product – go to the original supplier in America.

If you have any experiences with scammers, spammers or time-waster do let me know, by email.