Signs that the email you just received was a scam

Today I received ANOTHER email thanking me for renewing my Norton 360 subscription and being a loyal customer. If I wanted to cancel the subscription I must call and cancel it within 24 hours.

One major problem – I DON’T HAVE A NORTON 360 SUBSCRIPTION.

The scammers out there keep coming up with new schemes to steal hard-earned money.  

In this case, they trick unsuspecting users into calling their 800 number and giving them access to their computer. 

How do I know? I called the number the first time I received this bogus email to get a glimpse of the fraud.

The first giveaway of the Norton fraud was the “from” email address – joshua2245whi@gmail.com. Norton will not be contacting anyone from a Gmail address. 

The next sign was the fact that it was sent to  consumer896@gmail.com, not to my email address. 

Finally, the number to call was +1 – (887)-(765) – (8086). That is not a professional way to format a corporate telephone number.

Other signs of a scam include:

• Urgency and a request for an immediate response
• Scammers will claim to be from an organization you know
• Being asked to pay in a very specific way
• Scammers will claim there is a problem or prize

As Daily Money Managers we are responsible for safeguarding our clients’ assets. This means staying on top of the current schemes. We read magazines, blog articles, and trade publications that share this information. But, the best way to keep up with things is to get in touch with the ones pulling off the scam.

Receiving a call from the “Customs Department” is a recent scam. The callers claim they intercepted a package mailed to me that was highly suspicious.

“Do you know anything about this parcel, sir?” 

“Well, it just so happens that I do.”

“Really? Can you tell me about it?”

“It so happens that I am a drug dealer and I get these packages all the time.”

I can’t print the responses I’ve gotten.

We tell our clients to never act on any suspicious telephone call, email or text. They should simply call us. We’ve been able to save people a lot of heartache, time, and money by staying on top of the latest scam trends. If you’d like to know more about avoiding scams and what to do if you are a victim of one, visit the Federal Trade Commissions Scam Alert website.