‘Would you kindly’ is a giveaway, and even ‘kindly’ on its own is so uncommon in everyday American English that it registers as an instant red flag to the technology analyst Tim Bajarin. It is also a marker of bad English from the mouth of anyone who isn’t first-language American, which is often considered to be a telltale sign of communications from an overseas ‘boiler room’ run by foreign scammers. ‘All that stuff, poor grammar, bad spelling – they all scream “red flags” at you,’ Bajarin said.
Doug Shadel, who works for the nonprofit consumer advocacy organisation Consumer Watchdog and has been a fraud-prevention advocate for more than a decade, stresses that any kind of unsolicited communication – whether text, email or social media message – should be viewed with suspicion. Scammers of today are approaching their potential victims with what seem like pretty innocuous messages, such as ‘Did I miss you today?’ Then, once you’re on the phone, they’ll put the con on you. It’s very likely that they’re going to get you to pay money, or send them personal information. His advice is to ignore and report any unsolicited texts or emails – and that, if you’re responding to a suspicious message, always look up an official contact number, other than the one the caller sent you, to verify that you’re really speaking with who you think you are.
Second, as Shadel counsels, these types of suspicious communications must be reported to the authorities. To the extent that the authorities are aware of the scale of scamming activities, these can then be met with appropriate (by which I mean sufficient) resources to stop them. The reporting of these activities is not simply about protecting oneself; it also alerts others to deploy broad protective measures at scale.
Source: New York Post