Many 419 (advance fee) scammers claim to be from the FBI or United Nations, offering payments to people who have supposedly been scammed and are due compensation. Anyone who has not been scammed should realise immediately this is another scam, but some are enticed by the thought of an unexpected huge compensation payment even though it makes no sense. They respond to the scammer and get entangled in the webs of lies. This latest such scam message claims that my overdue compensation payment has been endorsed and is mine to collect from my bank. I just have to supply the scammer with my bank details and also my name as she doesn’t actually know who I am. No thanks.

A message claiming to be from applied.com warns me there has been an unusual login attempt on my APPLE account and I need to click the attached PDF file to see the details. However, the sender’s actual email address is a rubbish one “noreplyn0repply788123njasjjaf388138-1218087033” which is not APPLE and the attached PDF was in fact a WORD template document, no doubt stuffed with malware.  Plus, I don’t have an APPLE account.

An email from Teresa Sam says ‘Reply Me For Business’, ‘View proposal and get back’. Obviously, this is rather poor grammar but Teresa’s email address is actually someone named Alan so perhaps a confused scammer or just a lazy one who cannot be bothered making sure the email address matches the claimed name. All fake of course.

HMRC tell me that I owe them £281.24 and the debt is two weeks past settlement date so I must pay immediately  or face jail. Good job they are not HMRC, just scammers so can be ignored.

A “Domain Services Expiration Notice” arrives for the radio station. These have been occurring for several years in the few weeks before the radio station’s domain name is due for renewal. These scammers look up the renewal date for many people’s domain names then send out these messages which are actually selling SEO services but formatted to look like they are about the domain names. The scammer’s idea is to get people to register with them believing they are just renewing their domain name but in fact have signed up for real or fake SEO services, depending on the scammer. When the scammer offers real SEO services then they are not committing a crime, but when they don’t provide any services and just take the money then that is illegal. Either way – always read such messages carefully and be aware that scammers can tell when your domain name is dur for renewal and may try to catch you out.

Do click on the Facebook or Twitter icons on top right to follow Fight Back Ninja.