I received what I thought to be a message from postal service, informing me that I needed to provide some more details so that they can deliver a package. I clicked on the link they provided and ended up on a website that looked very official. After I provided more details, I was asked to provide a credit card number so they can charge for the second delivery. Stupidly I did. No surprise when after a few days, my credit card was charged for all types of fake services and purchases. Fortunately, the credit card company caught it and informed me. All the charges were removed and we got new cards.
That was just the beginning of the new sophisticated phase of scamming.
I got a message from a hotel I had booked using Booking.com in Sucre, Bolivia. It said that the credit card they were holding my reservation under was rejected and I needed to provide a new card with all the information. Otherwise, my reservation would be cancelled. I decided to cancel my reservation just to be safe and booked in another hotel. Soon afterward, I got a real message from the hotel saying that Booking.com had suffered a hack and we should not respond to the previous message.
My wife got a message soon after we got new debit cards that they had information of misuse and unless we provide more information, they would cancel the debit cards. The message was from an email address we did not recognize, so we did not respond. No idea how they found out we had a new debit card.
There was a posting from a friend of mine with an authentic looking video from BBC. He said that the video depicted an accident that killed someone we knew. Again, I stupidly clicked on it and was taken to a website I did not recognize. My friend posted soon afterwards, telling us that his account was hacked and we should not click on the posting. I had already done so. Thankfully, no harm was done (I think).
The other day, my wife received a message that her Apple ID was used on a new phone. No idea what that was about, since she has not purchased a new phone.
On and on, they keep coming at a faster and faster pace. We feel besieged. The above represents only a few attacks. Who knows how many were stopped by the filters of my laptop’s operating system.
I yern for the days when an email would arrive from a Nigerian address informing me that my relative had died in Nigeria and all I had to do was to fly there and claim my inheritance.
How nostalgic!
