Optimism, I like it.
I assumed that @3AxisCtrl was trying to work out how many gift cards he’s likely to get per million spoofed emails he sends out.
I had an iPod a long time ago and I think you had to use a computer to load it, which means you are almost certain to have internet access and email. Back then the iPod wasn’t connected. I don’t use Apple products, so I don’t know if Apple Music is required.
Anyhow, 99.9% chance that anyone legitimately using an Apple Gift card can get it emailed from Apple directly.
One thing you can (perhaps should) always do with dodgy mails if you’re not 100% sure they’re genuine is to extract the mail headers (here’s how for Outlook, here for Thunderbird), and paste them into a header analyzer, such as this one: https://mha.azurewebsites.net/ (this is Microsoft’s message header analyzer, but as always, take care with any data you send over the net).
You’ll not only get the Reply-To address, but also, information about the path the mail took to you (each server that processes the mail leaves its stamp in the ‘Received:’-header). Using this, you can look at the first server to process your mail, copy the IP, and input it into some geolocation tool (like this one, about which I know nothing other than that it showed up when I googled ‘IP geolocation’)—so if your little old lady neighbor is emailing you from China, you might suspect there’s something up. (Of course, that won’t help in the case of a hijacked email account.)
Here are some examples of how the output looks for various header analyzers.
That’s way too low.
How about one in ten to the power one thousand?
Then there’s a chance?
Well, I got one of these today. Not quite the same wording as the OP, but all the elements are there:
Now, I do know the purported sender–we both sit on the board of a local charity. And she is old, and she’s complained about arthritis before. However, any niece she has would be in their 50s or 60s–certainly old enough to have children who could help. For that matter, my acquaintance has children and grandchildren of her own. Why choose me? Something didn’t seem right.
Then, I remembered this thread, and saw that it would definitely be a scam. So, I just flipped back a reply stating that I was swamped with work over the next few days, and was unable to help. Perhaps somebody else could.
Thanks, @CairoCarol , for starting this thread, and thanks to everybody who confirmed that it was indeed a scam attempt.
The plot thickens. I received a reply to my “Sorry, I can’t” note:
I’m the only one who can help? No, I don’t think so–like I said, I know she’s got kids and grandkids; and plenty of friends and associates. Besides, there’s that $400 figure again, and the syntax is a lot wonkier than the real person would ever use.
I’m not even going to reply to this one.
Tell them you can’t get a gift card but you can send a money order. You’ll even make it for an extra $200, if they can just send you a check for $100 of that.
From a security perspective, most people should probably just delete the email rather than respond. In fact, it’s not even a good idea to open the scammers email. There are lots of tricks to get viruses installed on your system through email. The more opportunities you give them to interact, the more opportunities they have to infect your system, learn personal details about you, learn details about your computer, etc. Some security pros do respond and mess with them, but they use hardened computers they set up specifically to respond to scammers. If they get infected, they just delete the system and start fresh.
And sometimes even the experts get hacked
A Northern Ireland YouTuber known for busting the activities of scammers across the world has been tricked by a fraudster himself.
Well-known under the pseudonym Jim Browning, he has spent years turning the tables on fraudsters at scam call centres in India, as a way of exposing their methods and educating those watching.
Browning’s videos usually see him take on the role of someone falling victim to a tech support scam, detailing to viewers the language and tactics used by scammers.
However, despite his vast experience studying scammers and even successfully hacking into a scam support call-centre in India, the man himself fell victim to a tech support scam on Monday.
They’re getting very sophisticated. My company got targeted, they managed to intercept and insert themselves into an ongoing email chain between us and one of our customers. After establishing themselves as our existing customer liaison, they requested a change in account numbers for the next rebate payment.
Exactly! Don’t open it in the first place and definitely don’t respond. Never respond! smh.
I’ve been getting confirmations for a very expensive eBay, Amazon etc purchase that says to follow this link if you did not purchase. Designed to trigger an emotional response so you fall into their trap. Resist! Look at their email it’s bogus. Still questioning? Log into the official website for eBay Amazon etc and check your account.
report spam, delete.
I know I might get in trouble with the mods as we’re not supposed to dox people, but Obi-Wan is that you?