Scam emails
 

In the last week, I have received three scam emails. They have all been in French and they asked me to click on a link in the body of the email. I don't speak French so I would have no idea what they meant if I didn't have Google translate.

One was for Paypal, one was for a traffic ticket (I haven't driven in France in 20 plus years), and one was telling me that my credit card was being deactivated.

I did not click on any of the links!!!!

When I was working, my company would send out a couple of fake phishing emails a month to all of the employees to see if we would click on it. I did it once and I got a call from IT telling me not to do that. Since then, I don't click on any links in emails. If I am unsure, I call the company and verify that it is legitimate.

Has anyone else gotten any scam emails in French?

Does anyone know what happens if someone clicks on the link?

Nothing good.

And yet, some financial companies, Government offices, banks, and other large reputable companies continue to send emails asking people to click on a link. Go figure.

Years ago I was hired as a consultant for a large company, 2 weeks in I got what appeared to be an email for employee training, I made the big mistake of clicking the link, which was followed in minutes by a visit from my supervisor. Lesson learned!! This was a test that was done periodically at this company to enhance security, seemed to work well.

I am still trying to figure out why my tolls are in delinquency, LOL

After it happened to me, I started ignoring legitimate emails. If I got anything that looked possibly suspicious, I would call tech support to confirm whether it was fake or legitimate. I don't know how much time I wasted verifying emails but it was fairly time consuming.

But I have never clicked on a link in an email on my personal computer if I thought it might be suspicious.

With AI, it's getting harder and will only get worse.

Using an App/program like Spamdrain can help get your junk/spam/phishing email under control for less than a dollar a day.

The Nr 1 Spam filter for iPhone

I get e-mails all the time telling me my Netflix account is being suspended due to lack of payment.

I've never even had to check to see if it was legit or not. They send it to an e-mail address other than the one I signed up for Netflix with.

I also get texts telling me I owe for tolls. My sunpass auto-replenishes, so again - no need to even check on it.

I have multiple e-mail addresses for different purposes. I never get spam or scams on four of them, because I've never signed up for anything on those four. Another one is the one I use for all my loyalty cards. I *expect* spam and scam e-mails on that one, but that makes it easy to filter out and "select all" and delete.

Any e-mail in my other accounts with the word "hard" or the phrase "your woman" in the subject line - automatically gets filtered into my spam box. I get a lot of special offers for canadian viagra.

Just delete them and move on.

Having multiple email accounts is a good idea. At this point, it would be a hassle to do it.

Do you really expect me to click on your link, having read the earlier posts :-)

I don’t know what y’all are talking about. I just clicked on a link and won an all expenses paid trip to Botswana.

I'm learning to speak French so I can better understand these poor, underprivileged scammers who are nothing more than digital panhandlers. I really feel sorry for them.
/sarcasm

I get scam text messages. Florida Turnpike Authority saying I have unpaid balance and notes that look like an old friend is trying to reach me. I also get emails thanking me for my order of some annual subscription.

Spam
 

When I receive an email that looks strange but appears to be from a real friend, I forward it to my friend and ask if it's legitimate. Often the sender's email address isn't the same as the friend's real address so I do check that first. And of course, never click on anything in any of these emails.