Old Scams With A Covid Twist

Hello folks, a quick message to drive home the issue of not getting caught out by online scams. I think (I certainly hope) that we are all familiar with the scams of old. You know the ones. A seemingly reputable official reaches out to you as you are the ideal person, or the long lost relative, to take care of the transfer of large sums of money. You are, of course, trusted implicitly. Not only to carry out the transaction but also to be discrete about it. Like so many, I thought these scams had died a death as their origins are really back into the 90’s. But no, it seems that these old scams are still knocking about. With a slight difference though. They are now old scams with a Covid twist. Case in point. An email I received this morning.

Old Scams With A Covid Twist

I won’t copy and paste the whole message but suffice to say, it follows a familiar pattern. The message begins with a greeting where the “peace of the Lord” is wished upon me. And that the message sent to me (a complete stranger of course) is sent by the “grace of God”

Cutting to the chase, after the usual attempt to pull at the heart strings, this complete stranger had some potentially great news for me. To the tune of $8.5m. So tempting to check it out isn’t it? No, not at all. What do these people think?

The individual who is holding the money just happens to be an assistant branch manager of the Union Bank. And, here’s the reputation worthiness clincher. He is also a Pastor. Not just any old Pastor though. No siree. Only the creme de la creme Pastors get involved with transferring untold riches into my bank account. My Pastor is your very own Head Pastor of Assemblies of God Ministries Worldwide. How impressive is that!!!!

No sign of any scam so far is there? Not much!!!

Old Scams With A Covid Twist – Contact Them Anyway

The wording of the email and the approach is generally so very similar to those that started back in the 90’s and continued beyond. But in this case there is a spin. The funds my “Pastor In Shining Armour” is so kindly holding have come about as a result of someone with the same surname as myself, who banked at the Union Bank, has sadly passed away. They were a victim of the Covid-19 virus. There’s the Covid-19 connection. An old scam with a new, current, deadly illness.

As the email says, “may his gentle soul rest in perfect peace.” Ah, what a nice man my “over and above the call of duty” Super Pastor is.

One thing that makes my Super Pastor even more amazing is that he knows my surname!!! That may not seem an extraordinary feat if the email I received was addressed to a personal email address. An address that included my surname. But it wasn’t. The email was received in a business email inbox where there would be no way he could link it to my surname.

Playing devils advocate and still in awe of my Super Pastor, I’m now thinking that my Super Pastor has uncharacteristically been rather modest in his email. He obviously must also be psychic. Or clairvoyant. That’s how he knew my surname!! He kept that quiet didn’t he!!

Confabulate – What A Word!!!

But even though they weren’t certain the $8.5m funds were actually “mine” as the relation connection has not yet been confirmed, I was urged to reply anyway. As they said in the email, “please kindly get back to us even if you are not related to him. Get back to us for more details to enable us to confabulate further regarding this.“

Brilliant!!! My Super Pastor and his wife weren’t only kindly holding ‘my’ possible family related funds for me, they also want me to ‘confabulate’.

I can’t remember the last time I confabulated. I don’t even know if I’ve ever confabulated!!! But thanks anyway Super Pastor.

Old Scams With A Covid Twist – Other Tell Tale Signs

Covid-19 has enabled some of the ‘golden oldie’ scams to resurface. Did they ever go away? But nevertheless they are old scams with a Covid twist.

Stating the obvious, these scams play the numbers game. Even these old scams with a Covid twist. There must be some people out there who reply to these. If not, these emails would have completely died a death. So, even though many of you reading this will be more than familiar and more than aware, clearly some aren’t.

Just in case, even after reading this, you may get such an email and you are still tempted to reply. Don’t. To repeat, quite simple, don’t. In the email I received there were even more tell tale signs that this is a scam. If then you are tempted as a result of the content and the heart warming approach from someone like my compassionate Super Pastor, have a look for these tell tale signs.

The email came from a “no-reply” account. The name associated with this “no-reply” did not appear to have any bearing to the Pastor or his wife’s name. In other words, a bogus email address.

Also, in the email the Pastor’s full name was mentioned. Even his middle name. Which was Ken. As you couldn’t reply to the “no-reply” original email, there was an email address provided to reply to. It was the Pastor’s full name attached to a Yahoo email account. But……

Here’s The Scam

I’m guessing this approach is a well known tactic employed by scammers. I’m not quite sure because I’m not a scammer. On the face of it, a Yahoo email account seems plausible. And why wouldn’t it. Also, he’s provided his full name and this name is the email address @Yahoo.com.

Therefore, you may be tempted to Google the Pastor’s name (I haven’t by the way) and find that someone with that name does actually exist. He may even be a Pastor, or a high (ish) ranking employee from the Union Bank.

This is now maybe beginning to appear feasible. Some may now be tempted to click the Yahoo email address in the message to reply. But before you do, look a bit more carefully. You may find (as was the case with my humble Super Pastor) that his name in the email address is slightly misspelt. Instead of his middle name being “ken” it was now “klen”. A quick glance at the email address and you may miss that little error. Although it’s not an error is it.

A misspelt name in an email address is simple to do and could be quite easy to disguise. Again, bearing in mind it’s a numbers game. There will be some that will spot it. But, some won’t. Hence, in the numbers game, the approach works.

Easy To Miss Maybe?

Replace a letter “l” with the number “1” (look the same at first glance don’t they). Or, swap a capital “O” with the number “0” and so on. You can now begin to see that these ‘errors’ are easily overlooked.

But, as I’ve always said with these scams, if in doubt ignore them. All of them. ‘Errors’ and heart strings tugging messages aside, another tell tale sign of course is this. If it looks too good to be true then chances are it isn’t true. Keep these simple pointers in mind and you’ll be fine.

So sorry Super Pastor. I won’t be contacting you. Your wife’s email is nothing more than another instance of old scams with a Covid twist.

Take heed of this message folks. And, even if you are savvy to all this, spread the word to others who may be a bit more vulnerable.

Stay safe everyone.

Chester Crimewatch

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