So many scams - so little time

FRAUD ALERT - The CDC is not telling us to wear blue bracelets

By Diane Hettrick

There are so many scams and frauds coming at us that I hardly know where to start.

Here's a new one that a reader sent me. A company called VacSeen wants you to think that the CDC wants everyone who is vaccinated to wear a blue wristband - which they will sell to you. The pitch is very cleverly worded to make you think it's a CDC recommendation.

The one that is currently filling my in boxes is "Your order has shipped". It's a perfectly reasonable sounding email informing me that my order of a MacBook or Norton AntiVirus or some other product I didn't order has been shipped. They include the price information and tell me to click the link if I have any questions. If I fell for it, they would naturally need all my information in order to credit my account.

"Becky from Medicare" keeps calling me. Not sure what she wants or why NoMoRobo doesn't hang up on her. 

City Light scam alert

Previously I published the notice about Seattle City Light. A reader who retired from City Light agrees with the company that they would never ever hassle someone for payment. They might contact someone who is behind in payments to work out a payment plan but there would be written reminders first.

I received an extremely well done email from "Earthlink."  It was a very plausible email about upgrades and how they wanted to be sure that my service would continue uninterrupted. 

• I checked the grammar. Small grammatical mistakes are a tell. "Please verify your informations."
• The premise was reasonable if I actually had an Earthlink account. 
• Finally, I put the cursor over the sender's email. It displayed as Earthlink.net but the name underneath was something entirely different. Bingo!

Here's the hard truth:

• You haven't won a prize.
• No one is giving you money.
• Your PC is not infected.
• No one logged into your account.
• You don't need a free personal injury evaluation
• The weight loss pills don't work.
• Neither does the cure for toenail fungus.
• Don't borrow money from someone who sends an email.

So many more. One of the emails I maintain received a thousand spam messages in a month. A lot of casino offers for free spins and chips. Cures for diseases. Invitations to class action lawsuits. The usual porn offers. Free credit reports. Amazon rewards for completing a survey.

Just remember this:

Nothing is free.

If it's too good to be true - it's not true.

Oh - and buy your cannabis gummies from a local store, not from an email solicitation.