Page 3 - September 2023 Scoop Newsletter

Scammer Answers

This is most likely a scam, unless your name
is Anna. There isn’t enough information to This is not a scam. This is an actual
decide either way, but there are reasons to email from a bank about an unusual
be suspicious. The phone number isn’t in
your contacts, and there’s no previous text charge. We know it’s real because the
history. It’s also short on the usual sender email address and links all
conversational details such as where to show the correct domains, and
have the barbecue or why. because we checked the listed charge
against the real account to make sure
“Wrong number” scams are common. Their it showed up under recent
goal is to turn it into a friendly transactions. The logo and formatting
conversation and, eventually, lead you into are also standard for the sender
a situation where they can get money or
information. If they’re a real person who
isn’t trying to scam you, they’ll likely figure
out they have the wrong number on their
own when nobody replies.

#3

This is a scam. The red flags in texts are easy to spot
if you slow down. Always start with the “from” field
on top. In this example, it’s not coming from a phone
number or official domain name but a Hotmail
address. Phone numbers are harder to screen at first
glance, but beware of an international country code
and paste anything into a search engine to see
whether it’s a known fake.

In this message, the URL doesn’t match the official
site address for the U.S. Postal Service, which is
USPS.com. On URLs, look specifically at the middle
and ending section since scammers can put more
official-sounding words in the front.