You might think you've heard about every email scam out there. But just today, we've learned of a new one that even the smartest people are falling for.
For 12 years, Charlene Keshe has been the office manager for a Mayfield Heights attorney.
Recently, she saw an email on her phone from her boss asking her to pick up gifts for clients. It said, "Go to a store and buy 5, $100 iTunes gift cards. And take those cards and scratch off certain things, take a picture of it, and send that by phone," she explained.
She didn't think much of it, especially since the email sounded like something her boss would say.
"He did say that he would be in about 1:00 p.m., his usual time in the office. He works at home in the morning. There was no reason, you know nothing obvious, to doubt that it was from him,” she said.
She only realized this was a scam when she thought it would be quicker to "text" him back and he had no idea what she was talking about.
That's when she opened the email on her computer and noticed, "On the phone, you only see it's from him. It doesn't show the whole sending address."
It's called "shotgunning," where scammers send out hundreds of emails hoping to get a hit.
Alex Hamerstone of TrustedSec explained, "If you go on a site like LinkedIn, you can find out the reporting relationships, who works there, figure out what the email address looks like, and really get a lot of information to send a very convincing email.”
In this case, it seems scammers went on the firm’s website, saw the attorney's name and email with Charlene listed as his assistant.
"It was nothing more than a spam email, but a pretty clever one," she said.
While we don't know where this email originated from, security experts say thieves have come a long way since those "Nigerian Prince" schemes.
Hamerstone told us, “We have a very highly educated and tech savvy, yet the middle class is under ten thousand a year, so it doesn't take a lot of these to really put you on the upper stratosphere of income there.”
In fact, the success of Nigerian scammers and their lifestyle is even glamorized in a music video from a Nigerian singer, which has more than 3 million views on YouTube.
Security experts say, if you get an email asking you to spend or send money, even if it's from someone you know, make sure their email address is really theirs.
Or better yet, call them directly.