Is this a scam?

[Chris CrewParticipant @chriscrew66644]

I have received an email purporting to be from BT. The opening lines are:

Hello C.J Crew,

In line with our enduring pledge to safeguard your email account and maintain a secure environment, we persistently scrutinize all email activities for any anomalies. In light of our recent system update aimed at enhancing your security, it is now imperative that all users verify their email accounts.

There is then a button to purportedly verify the account. The sender is heatherc47@btinternet.com

This really doesn't seem genuine to me but I am not sure. What would others make of it?

[Chris CrewParticipant @chriscrew66644]

[Ady1Participant @ady1]

Delete it

You can verify your account by logging in properly through the BT page

[Dave WoottonParticipant @davewootton]

I had a very similar one a few weeks ago, purporting to be from BT, I deleted it thinking it was a scam and my email is still working ok. So even if it's genuine it can't be that important. Everyone and his dog seems to be trying to scam you these days!

Dave

[Paul LParticipant @paull58212]

Scam i would say.

Delete it.

[Willem KotzeParticipant @willemkotze19252]

I have quite a collection of junk mail that I block. Not just erase. Dead giveaways are poor grammar -, spelling errors or no valid adressee name and as in your case informal adressing "Hello A.A.Surname". Just hovering the mouse pointer over a link will provide information on the link and if the link has a different or dubious domain block it. Do not click the link until you are satisfied. Until you have deleted content in your junk folder you can still recover it, if necessary.

I hope this helps.

Regards

Willie

[JAParticipant @ja]

Very simple – If you think it is a scam, it is a scam. Delete it.

If it turns out not to be scam, BT will probably not take action against you, or what ever.

Some scam emails are worth keeping because they are so absurd. I had one from a collegue who was being held to ransom and needed money. The email said that he was being held by a hotel in Manila for unpaid bills and that he had just been attacked by Afghan herdsmen.

JA

Edited By JA on 01/07/2023 17:31:54

[Anonymous]

What do you think of this:

Your $20.00 Undocumented Claim in the Canadian Optical Disc Drives class action is approved. This is an advance notification that your payment will be issued via Interac e-Transfer very shortly. The Sender of the Interac e-Transfer will be either:

(1) Optical Disc Drives Settlement,

or (2) Computershare Trust Company.

If you do not have auto deposit set up with your financial institution, you will require a security answer to complete the Interac e-Transfer transaction.
As a reminder, your security answer is: 40043118
 

Please see http://www.oddclassaction.com for more information.
 

Sincerely,
RicePoint Administration Inc.
Claims Administrator
http://www.oddclassaction.com

Edited By Peter Greene 🇨🇦 on 01/07/2023 17:47:18

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi Chris, as Ady1 says, log on to your account directly and not via a link.

Regards Nick.

[davidkParticipant @davidk]

Hi Chris,

I had the same one yesterday, definitely a scam.

David

[John HinkleyParticipant @johnhinkley26699]

Chris,

The very fact that the sender of the email has spelt "scutinize" that way, would suggest to me that it's a U.S.-originated scam. Don't touch it with your, or anyone else's, bargepole.

John

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Posted by Peter Greene 🇨🇦 on 01/07/2023 17:32:41:

What do you think of this:

Your $20.00 Undocumented Claim in the Canadian Optical Disc Drives class action is approved. …

Strong smell of fish, even on this side of the Atlantic!

Unlikely in the UK for anyone to be sent money out of the blue in this way. When companies are fined here after breaking the law, the government gets the money. Individuals seeking damages have to go through the courts. There are no Fairy Godmothers showering victims of crime with money! May be different in Canada.

Why not ask Competition Bureau Canada for their advice? They cover Fraud and Scams!

Dave

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

Definitely a scam; either phishing or fraud.

Incredible sender's name.

Informal address.

American spelling (though that does not necessarily mean it originated in the USA as a lot of countries teach American, not English).

Unlikely text.

Report it to 'phishing[at]btinternet.com. Block the sender. Delete it.

'''''

The Canada one is so bizarrrely unreal you wonder how much sense the gang operating it, has!

.

Incidentally, BT Internet offers you its "View Source" tool. Most of what it displays is intelligeable, if at all, only to a computing expert (a lot is the alphanumerical version of the programme code) but it does sometimes reveal some very strange routing information and validation results.

[Clive FosterParticipant @clivefoster55965]

Rule 1 with questionable E-Mail these days has to be having things set so you can see the actual source address not just the response address.

I got the same one as Chris this morning, albeit with a different name to reply to, but the source address was clearly nowt to do with BT.

It really is pity that there appears to be no way of holding only approved E-Mail addresses for firms et al so such scam are automatically filtered locally. It would seem a fairly trivial job at your E-Mail provider end to filter on that basis given a small amount of text analysis or keyword recognition. That said I think BT does aprtetty good job for me as its rare to actually see a scammy mail in my inbox.I get a few a week in my junk box "Apple mail thinks this is junk" presumably marked up by BT as questionable. Probably only one genuine mail marked up a junk every couple of moths so things seem to be working as well as could reasonably be expected.

Clive

[Anonymous]

Posted by SillyOldDuffer on 01/07/2023 19:37:18:

Posted by Peter Greene 🇨🇦 on 01/07/2023 17:32:41:

What do you think of this:

Your $20.00 Undocumented Claim in the Canadian Optical Disc Drives class action is approved. …

Strong smell of fish, even on this side of the Atlantic!

You would think so wouldn't you … and yet it's quite legitimate. I have several $20 deposits to my bank account to test it. The only information I gave them was an email address (created for the occasion from my domain and disposable within 10 sec) and I may have given them an address at some point – but that's hardly secure information. I (of course) gave out no bank details – not even the name of my bank. The whole thing is handled via Interac and thence to my bank.

The first time I got one of these I felt sure it was a scam. I just went looking to find out more about it. Since they just wanted an email address I created one for them to see what would happen.

[Robert Atkinson 2Participant @robertatkinson2]

I was just about to say legitimate. Even as a UK resident I've received USA class action settlement payments for items I'd bought in the US and registered. These included one from Sony when they dropped their e-reader range.
I hope somone starts a class action against Western Digital for their My Cloud Home for wich they had a hack causing loss of access and have also dropped support to them. Dispite the fact they arn't supported they are still for sale.

Robert.

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

This morning's scam. I got a phone call on my mobile from 'HMRC' saying a letter had been returned from my address ……. I will be taken to court ….press 1" .Not sure what the press 1 can do except perhaps tell them I'm a sucker. Maybe I would then get a text with a website to try.
I have the advantage of knowing that HMRC have never been given this phone number for me so unless they have invented a mobile phone usage tax I'm in the clear.

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi Bazyle, I'd guess the first thing it would do would be to acknowledge that your phone number is in current use, which may lead to your number being sold to other scammers. I would just delete it. HMRC is more likely to send you a letter.

Regards Nick.

Edited By Nicholas Farr on 03/07/2023 11:10:40

[HOWARDTParticipant @howardt]

If you have ever registered with HMRC online for submitting tax accounts you do occasionally get an email telling you to log in for documents. But I am pretty sure you do this separately, not going through any link on the email, which I always do for any personal or home accounts.

[Chris CrewParticipant @chriscrew66644]

"HMRC is more likely to send you a letter".

HMRC never send me letters, they only send me bills! Other people seem to get away with paying no additional tax above that deducted at source (or so they tell me) but how they do it, or whether they are genuinely not liable, I have no idea. All I know is that HMRC seem to have got their claws into me and won't let go!

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi Chris, bills aside, but if they were going to take court proceedings against you, they are more likely to send you a letter, through the post, and you may well have to sign for it.

Regards Nick.

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