Scam Alert


Hi everyone

I’ve been asked to alert you to a scam that’s on its rounds at the moment. At least three of our members have received an email headed “Peace and Blessings”, with the sender shown as “Very Rev. Kenny Rathband”, but it’s not really Kenny, because the email address after the name is rev.kenny.rathband -at- gmail.com. (I’ve put “ – at – ” in place of a @ character, to stop it creating a hyperlink)

It asks you for a ‘favor’ (American spelling) … if you respond, you get a reply that says “I just need to get Amazon gift card for some women patients going through cancer at the hospital but I can’t do that right now because I’m currently busy. Can you get it from any store around you right now?”

If you’ve lost money, report it at https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/reporting-fraud-and-cyber-crime or call ActionFraud on 0300 123 2040.

If you’ve responded, but not paid up because you got the message that this is a non-UK con, my view is that there’s no danger in having replied to the email, as there are no ‘nasties’ embedded in it. What you can do to help is:

·         Add rev.kenny.rathband -at- gmail.com to your black list (with @ replacing “ – at – ”)

·         Make sure that you look twice at any odd emails you get that appear to be from a friend, and ask whether they would write in that way. If in doubt, look at the address that the email actually came from.

·         Use blind copies for any large distribution lists you have (like this one).

More information at https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/scam-emails.

Hope this helps you avoid worry and trouble! Please pass the message on to others if need be.