Anyone can fall for a scam - yet another reminder.

[Wayne]

Writing these, sometimes I'm looking for the most tenuous link there is between something that happened to me and a lesson to be learned about scams. So let me start this one by saying I managed to jam my thumb in the car door this week, leaving me with lots of swelling, a nail that's going to fall off and a suspected fracture across 2 of the bones. I say "suspected" as the x-rays have been sent across to the fracture clinic for verification and I should get the official verdict next week. Want to see how badly it's swollen?

What the hell has this got to do with scams, right? Simple. I've gotten in and out of cars for my entire life without ever once jamming my thumb in the door. Tens of thousands of times without any kind of incident, then suddenly I'm not quite paying enough attention and end up with a messed up thumb. Likewise, on X recently someone in "the biz" admitted that they almost fell for a phishing scam and only realised when it asked for their account's daily withdrawal limit. That brought up a lot of dialogue, with one side saying "And this guy claims to be an expert. Would you trust him?" while the other side pointed out that it simply showed anyone can make a mistake and it only takes a moment of distraction. Also this week I had a message from an ex saying she'd fallen for a phishing scam and lost 2k. Now she's a smart cookie. For one thing she has the sense to be my ex but she also knows about law enforcement and had a very good career there before retiring. She's not gullible, but simply fell for a scam by letting her guard slip. Even I had to take a closer look at an email I received in my personal inbox this week claiming to be from TV licensing:

At first glance it looks genuine, and anyone could be forgiven for seeing it and not spotting it's a fake. I've always tried to demonstrate the simplest ways to do thing, and in this case that's what I did.

What's the email address it was sent from? This could be faked (or "spoofed") to appear genuine, but in this case it wasn't:

Well that's clearly not genuine! Next trick is to simply hover over the link in the email and see where it leads to. I find this much easier on a computer than a tablet or phone. Here's what I saw:

Again, clearly not genuine, but I say this as someone who's spent nearly the past 20 years examining scam emails. Someone in a rush, tired, stressed out or simply unaware of how these scams work can fall for them. Even those of us who do this every day can still be caught out in a moment of weakness. We're none of us perfect. All it takes is a momentary lapse and you could end up with a smooshed thumb or a scammer in your bank account.