Hoax-Slayer - Subscription Renewal Scams and Caging The Undead!
Hoax-Slayer Issue #6
Watch Out For Subscription Renewal Scams
Here’s the scenario:
You receive an email claiming that the yearly subscription to a computer security program such as Norton or McAfee is set to renew. The email appears to be an invoice for the charge and may include company branding and other details designed to make it appear genuine.
You can’t recall starting the subscription described and were not expecting this charge, especially since it may total several hundred dollars.
The email includes a contact number you can call to cancel the subscription and request a refund.
Feeling stressed, you immediately call the number and speak to a scammer posing as a “helpful” staff member. The scammer informs you that a mistake has been made and promises a full refund. You are asked to provide your credit card details and other personal information to process the refund.
The scammer can now use the information you provided to commit credit card fraud and identity theft.
This is a common scam tactic. The email has no connection to the named security company, and you have not actually been charged the stated fee. The goal of the scammers is to panic people into calling the number and providing their information without due forethought.
While the examples below target computer security vendors, some versions target other subscription-based services such as Amazon Prime or Adobe.
If you receive an unexpected subscription renewal notice, check its veracity before responding. Check if the fee really has been taken out of your bank account. If you have an account with the company named in the supposed renewal notice, log in to check for any messages about recent charges.
If you need to query a charge or upcoming renewal, contact the company via the details listed on their official website rather than by calling a number in an unsolicited email.
Screenshots of two such scam emails:
Were Cages Placed Over Graves in Victorian Times to Trap the Undead?
A message featuring an image of a grave entirely covered by a heavy iron cage continues to circulate via social media.
According to the message, cages were used in Victorian times to keep the “undead” from escaping their graves should the corpses reanimate. Supposedly, people of that era had a widespread fear of zombies and vampires.
However, while the image itself is genuine, the explanation in the message is utter nonsense. In fact, the cages – known as mortsafes – were used to protect newly interred bodies from being stolen by body snatches.
In the 18th and early 19th centuries, an increasing need for fresh corpses by medical schools fueled a burgeoning trade in bodies. Anatomists and medical students needed a constant supply of fresh bodies to practice on. Legitimate supplies of bodies, such as those of executed criminals, could not keep up with the demand.
Enterprising people known as resurrectionists would dig up the bodies of the recently interred to supply this market. Because a supply of bodies was seen as vital to the advancement of medical science, authorities tended to turn a blind eye to the activities of the grave robbers. Bodies and body parts became a commodity.
Concerned family and friends of people who had died began to take measures to protect the graves of their loved ones. Mortsafes, invented around 1816, were one such measure. Mortsafes were mainly used in Scotland. The steel cages came in a variety of designs and were intended to make it difficult for grave robbers to get to the bodies. The mortsafes were often left on graves for a few weeks until the bodies they protected were sufficiently decayed so that they were no longer of interest to resurrectionists.
The Anatomy Act of 1832 in the United Kingdom meant that bodies could be more easily procured for medical dissection, although the stealing of corpses still continued for some years after.
Thus, as is often the case, it seems that some prankster has simply invented a fanciful tale to fit an interesting image. Ironically, as is also often the case, the real story is actually a lot more interesting than the made-up one.
Example:
This is a grave from the Victorian age when a fear of zombies and vampires was prevalent. The cage was intended to trap the undead just in case the corpse reanimated.
Security Tip: Check Email Addresses in Suspect Messages
One way to help identify a message as a suspected scam is to check the email addresses it uses.
Businesses Use Email Addresses That Reflect Their Name
Legitimate businesses will almost always use custom email addresses that reflect their business name. They will not use free email addresses provided by Gmail, Yahoo or other ad-supported email service providers.
For example, online payment service PayPal, often the target of scammers, corresponds with customers using email addresses that have “paypal.com” after the @ symbol (“service@paypal.com”). If you receive an email that looks like it is from PayPal but has a sender email address such as “paypal@gmail.com”, you will immediately know that the message is fraudulent.
Scammer Email Address Tricks
Scammers often try to make their bogus email addresses appear legitimate by using the targetted company’s name somewhere in the address, such as with the “paypal@gmail.com” address mentioned above. Sometimes, they may even create a domain such as “admin@paypalsupport.com” to increase the likelihood that recipients will believe the email is genuine.
Caveat – Email Spoofing
All that said, keep in mind that some scams use email spoofing to make it appear that an email really did originate with the targetted company. In other words, the email that you see in the “Sender” field may appear genuine (“service@paypal.com”) when, underneath, it may be an entirely different address ([scammer’s name]@yahoo.com).
Thus, checking email addresses should only be one of the methods you use to ascertain an email’s legitimacy. You should also watch out for other potential indicators such as poor spelling and grammar, dodgy web addresses, demands that you click a link or open an attachment and provide sensitive information, urgent or threatening tone, unlikely claims, and more.