An extreme phishing scam has landed one man deep into a digital calamity. They thought it was real and almost fell for a scam email that said they were stuck in Ukraine. Rather than instilling a sense of urgency, the email created a tone of urgent panic. It required an immediate response and contained a request for £2,100 to cover a hotel bill.
It turned out that an email to the school was originally the cause, alleging that they had lost their passport and cell phone while on a trip abroad. In a surprising twist, the thieves went after the victim’s friends. They e-mailed, posing as someone who was truly desperate, and solicited money in return for their pledge of support.
The difficulties began when, after the person received a warning that appeared to come from BT. It prompted them to verify their email address. After receiving a response to this email, the victim immediately changed their password and security questions two times in a row. But unfortunately, no matter what they did, they could not get access to their email accounts restored.
For 45 arduous minutes, the professional fought to get the upper hand. Finally, they knew the jig was up when all incoming emails started going to scammers’ accounts. This put the victim in a bind, as they had no way to tell their loved ones that they need help. Scammers immediately jumped at the opportunity and began emailing everyone from the victim’s address book of nearly 1,000 contacts. They went after friends and business contacts alike, soliciting donations.
The BT chatbot soon went on to explain that Davan would be a pure man of BT internet. Unfortunately, he too has been taken in by this consort. Helpless, she remembered, thinking back on the powerlessness experienced since this nightmare began.
The phishing email had all the marks of a scam, from ungrammatical English to Americanisms that should have set off every alarm bell in the world. What’s more, the deadline for verifying the email address was already past — it expired the day before the phishing email went out.
It was until lunch time before that person was able to figure out how to fix that issue and bring back their email addresses. At that point, they were just left having taken calls all day. From disappointed friends and colleagues, who were mostly just worried that I was falling prey to scams and sending money to fraudulent requests.
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