Beware any requests to help a friend by purchasing a gift card.

This morning I received an email from a friend that I’ve been in contact with recently trying to arrange a time to have lunch. His email arrived just before 7 a.m.

“Sorry to bother you, do you shop from Amazon? Thanks, David [last name withheld]”

“All the time,” I replied, not yet suspecting a scam. “What are you doing up at this hour?”

He usually stays up to the wee hours of the morning, then sleeps late into the next day.

But his reply felt strangely disconnected.

“How are you doing today? Good to hear from you. I need to get an Apple E-Gift Card for a friend of mine who is diagnosed with stage 4 mesothelioma cancer, She lost her only daughter to the disease (COVID-19), it’s her birthday but I can’t do this now. I tried purchasing it online but unfortunately, I got no luck on that. Wondering if you could help me take care of this through Amazon online or get it from any store around you? and I’ll reimburse you once I get back home.

Please let me know so I can provide you with her email and amount.

Awaits your response,

David

At this point, I recognized the now quite infamous gift card scam. Someone impersonating a friend contacts you for help. Often it’s via a phone call, but in this case an email.

But now that I figured it out, I took a closer look at his email.

This particular scammer was pretty unskilled.

The original email gave him away, as it appears to have included the scammer’s email.

“from: David S. ” But the return address was different, made up of my friend’s last name (misspelled, but close enough that you might not notice it) @hotmail.com.

So I replied to the scam return address: “Sure, David. I’ll give you a call for the info.”

The scammer made another half-hearted attempt.

“Where you able to call?”

At this point, I took a screen shot of the exchange and emailed my friend at his actual address, warning him of the fraud in his name.

So, beware any unusual requests, even if they “look” real. Trust no one.