Spammers have been trying harder lately

I thought I was getting a break from them. There was a period of about a week when no spammers contacted me. However they hit it even harder the last few days, and today I got this email:

Hi Brian

Duly re-confirm your cell number.

Thanks.

Now of course that is suspicious on its own, but it is even more suspicious when it came from someone in the consulting company I work with that has a gmail address. I contacted the help desk and let them know that I got this and of course deleted it.

For the last several years as I have worked at new companies spammers have texted me, and now emailed me to ask for either my cell phone number or impersonating the CEO and asking me to do something. It is so stupid. CEOs don’t text people, and they certainly don’t need you to confirm your cell phone number.

If you get a text message you should 100% suspect it is a fraud. I don’t respond to text messages. They don’t offer me enough protection that the person is who they claim to be. I don’t understand why people trust them. I call someone and talk to their voice, and only do business in person. The ease of fraud is just not worth using lesser forms of proof like text messages.

I continue to block people on LinkedIn but lately it has been even worse. During one day I had 5 people try to talk to me who were obviously spammers. “I think your profile is great and you are handsome and I’d like to talk on WhatsApp.” No thank you. This goes back to what I said before. Disbelieve anyone who compliments you who you don’t know.

I also had a DocuSign attempt last week. If you aren’t sure about something you receive in your email, ask your IT staff/person you do business with if this is legitimate. When I asked even when it was legitimate they thanked me and appreciated that I was aware of the risks of email. The legitimate email that I thought was fraud was an automated email saying that I had accessed a portal when I hadn’t, and they said that there was a delay in their systems and that was a legitimate email. Ok then. It is better to ask and be sure than take a chance.