Crown Heights Shomrim Warns of New Scam Rampant In the Community
by CrownHeights.info
Crown Heights Shomrim has published an alert to the Jewish community after an old scam, with a new spin, has been reported in the community.
It’s essentially an old scam. You get a threatening email demanding money from you. While the scammers actually have no idea who you are, and have no plans to carry out any threats, they hope to scare you into giving them money. Sometimes the scammers get you name right, sometimes they don’t. Sometimes the address is correct, many times it’s off by a lot.
That’s the old scam, the new one has an unnerving twist to it.
Reports from multiple targets of the new scam have reported that the scammers have included a picture of their home in the email. This can be unnerving, but it’s still just a scam.
The internet has an unimaginable amount of information readily available to all. This includes websites such as Yellowpages.com, which will provide a name, associated home address and more. From there a simple google maps search will provide a picture of the home, and just like that, a Nigerian scammer in the deserts of Africa can send you an email demanding money.
Other reports claim that pieces of personal information, such as usernames or passwords have also shown up in these scam emails.
Crown Heights advises anyone who receives such an email to file a police report and change their passwords immediately.
Remember, it’s a scam, don’t fall for it!
Got It Yesterday
I got this scam yesterday. It had a picture of my neighbor’s house, rather than mine. At first I thought it was a solicitation from a real estate broker, until I read it.
Thank you for posting!
Thank you so much! I justgot this threatening email this morning and wjile I figured it was a scam I hadnt yet done any research. I barely could sleep, it listed a picture of my house, name and email. How dioes anyone even get access to this? Would be interested to know what stepsi can take to prevent this in the future.
Dovid
It’s trivial to get such information unfortunately. There’s an enormous amount of personal information about everyone out there on the web and the dark web. Many many companies have been hacked over the last few years and lots of personal information has got out.