This romance scam took me by surprise. It’s more serious than most of the ones I’ve personally been involved with here on Keep Safe On The Net. But it matches the experience of many of my readers over the years – readers who have been taken in by these romance scammers and lost thousands of dollars or pounds.
My sister just forwarded me this email:
A friend received this email asking if she was eligible to claim a Uniform Tax Relief. That’s a tax rebate you can claim in the UK if you wear a uniform to work and have to clean and maintain it yourself.
A friend recently turned 70 and had to renew his driving licence. It’s a legal requirement in the UK. So he turned to the internet and found a site that wanted to charge him for the renewal. It didn’t take him long to realise that he was being taken in. I won’t say scammed, because […]
A hacked account posted a message in one of the groups I belong to. It said: “Sehr wichtige Informationen zum Teilen Es dauert einige Minuten kostbarer Zeit Ich möchte heute um 09.56 Uhr nur einen schweren Unfall melden. Tritt Facebook bei, um Videos und Fotos des Opfers zu sehen und zu sehen, ob du sie” […]
If you own a domain name – for your business or for personal use, perhaps so you can have a personalised email address, you might receive one of these scam messages, which I’ve copied and pasted below (and removed the links).
These are scams and do not come from your domain registrar. This is a scammer who wants to steal your money and possibly your credit card details.
I’ve made a video about it, which you can view below.
Over the years, several people have contacted Keep Safe On The Net to tell us how they have fallen victim to romance scammers.
If you join a dating group you become vulnerable to these predators, because you are looking for a relationship with someone who is kind to you, says nice things to you and claims to want to send you presents.
Someone messaged Keep Safe On The Net to tell me that they had “been ripped off” by one of the cheap clothing ads here on Facebook. You know the ones – expensive looking clothes at apparently bargain prices.
All the photos they use are stolen from the real sellers’ websites. What you receive will probably have little or no resemblance to the stolen photos.
So I made another video about these fake clothing companies.
Romance scammers have been a recurring theme since I started Keep Safe On The Net. They are the scourge of social media and dating website and prey on the vulnerable. A common theme is claiming to be a serving soldier, posted in a war zone. They will claim their husband/wife has died or left them […]
This fake Lotto was sent to me by a reader, who told me :
“I am a 55y/o, widow from the Philippines, I write here to make you know that I’ve just recently received a letter from Mrs. Tina Brown as you can see and read her letter that I forwarded through e-mail. Hoping you can get rid of this kind of scam.”
A friend just received this email:She forwarded it to me and I did what I always tell people not to do – I clicked on the link.This is where it took me:A page pretending to be BT (British Telecom). Look at the web address in the address bar at the top of the screenshot – […]
It seems the account of one of my Facebook friends has been hacked. It has just sent me this message: I realised instantly it wasn’t a genuine message, but clicked on the link to see where it took me. No – it wasn’t immediately “non family friendly”. This is where it took me: Look closely […]
I’ve added another video to the YouTube channel about fake Facebook giveaways. This one is about The Rewards Store – who seem to run fake giveaways for Morrisons, Arbys and Centre Parks.
From time to time I receive an email asking me to join the EU Business Register.
But what is it and is it a con?
I did some investigation and made a Youtube video
There seems to be a spate of fake store pages being set up on Facebook. In this post we’re going to look at a fake Morrisons supermarket giveaway. The theme is common – the store will give £35 plus a bag of goodies to everyone who likes and shares the post by midnight.
This email seems to have been sent to people who use an email address associated with a domain name that they own. Although this email claims to have come directly from your domain, this is the email address it was actually sent from: <fg@sosoibella.com> Your online email provider probably doesn’t care which device you use […]
This fake BT email doesn’t even bother to pretend to address you personally – it just says “Hello”.
This fake email was sent to a friend and claims to come from the UK TV Licencing authority. It claims to have been sent from info@lyfvaccines.com, which isn’t the email address of the TV Licencing.It claims your bank has declined your last payment and sweetly asks if you’d “like to pay now”.Clicking on the link […]
This was sent to my sister, from the very (un)convincing yypxwha@[telenet.be] How did I know it was a fake? Firstly, look at the email address it was sent from – that isn’t the DVLA Secondly, it doesn’t address you by name, it just uses your email address Thirdly, if you click on the link (please don’t) […]
This appeared in my inbox this morning. DO NOT click on the link. This is what it says:“software-licences.com. New profile notification. Hello Karla sent 2 unique messages https://ewufiuv.page.link/PTTw, Your profile has been updated USER ACCOUNT INFORMATION Login URL: https://software-licenses.com/ Email: myemail@email.com Password: *********** (Forgot your password?)” How do I know this is a hoax? 1. […]
Look closely at the image below. Look at the email it was sent from @cuponeria.com.br. That isn’t the real address of a UK Government agency.
This isn’t a scam, as such, more a word of caution. It was brought to my attention yesterday by a client who was nearly taken in but realised in time that he was being asked to pay for something that should be free. My client is over 70 and in the UK that means you […]
This fake domain renewal notice was posted as a comment on another post. But it seemed a shame to leave it there. After all, if you post your scam as a comment on an anti-scam blog, it must merit a post of its own, so that everyone can see that a) it’s a scam and […]
This bit of ridiculousness came from the very (un)convincing diplmissionoffice@gmail.com. Because obviously diplomats use GMail. Or maybe not???? I wonder which “diplmissionoffice” this fool thinks he might be a member of? Ignore this, this is just a scammer who wants to get his or her hands on your money. Dear Sir,The courier statutory report shown […]
A friend just received a phone call from 07683 525175. It was a recorded message, with an American accent, telling her that they were from BT and there were records of dodgy activity on their internet and phone line and they would be cut off unless they held the line to speak to someone. My […]
Oooooo look “the wealthiest organization in the world” has decided to give $1m. Only $1m — I get offered 10 times that every day by the Bank of Nigeria or the United Nations. Of course an organization that has randomly decided to send you millions is going to start their email by saying “good morning” […]
Brenda has “important information” for me. So I’ve asked her if she’s found a long lost relative of mine. I’ll let you know what she says. (As in her copy and paste reply which will totally ignore the question I asked her) Please forgive me for sending this mail without your permission. Once again, my name is […]
Ooooooo – look – I’ve won lots of money on a lottery I didn’t enter. Does that sound likely???? No, of course it doesn’t. You cannot win a lottery that you haven’t entered. This is a scammer who is after your cash. My online alter ego has replied, so I’ll let you know if s/he […]
My online alter-ego has emailed mrs fenna liam, telling her which hotel I will be staying in at Schiphol and which flight I will be on. I will let you know what her instructions are. Meanwhile – I’m sure you know as well as I do that you don’t have £2m sitting in a mysterious […]