r/phishing

Hello, I’m probably just paranoid but I need to be sure.

I’ve been getting flooded with spam emails for years. I usually ignore and delete them, but i sometimes check the spam section of my email to see if I missed anything .

Anyway, I got an email about mcdonalds. The mail has some chat logs that don’t belong to me at all. At the end of the email, it had a pdf attached to it. I did not
click on anything inside the email and deleted it right after. All good.

a few hours after that I get a random phone call. I’ve been applying for jobs and the phone number has my local area code, so I pick up.

The person on the other end acts confused, starts speaking in english, asks why i called him. I tell him that they called me, and he keeps asking confused. I hang up after a minute because it’s obviously either a scam
or a wrong number.

Am I at risk of anything? I’m a bit concerned, since my number hasnt appeared in any data leaks. I’m also concerned about being a target for sim swapping now. The phone bill is under my mothers name, so there’s not much I can do to prevent it. I already use google authenticator, but still.

What do I do? Am I safe?

It's a scam I figure, but I'm not sure what exactly to do in this situation. It's three emails so far with the same hook "I have a feeling this pic might seem pretty familiar" but all of them are under different emails but their all signed with the same nick name. It's just rather annoying and this is my first time dealing with this type of thing

At around 10 am, I got a message saying that i have initiated a jailbreak request (?) via my phone linked to the apple watch i was wearing. It said after jailbreaking, data associated with my apple id will be shared with all post jailbreak users. It also said, to cancel this request, please turn off Find My. I got a second message saying the same thing( they both said that I have 24 hrs to do it) I saw both of the messages were a Moroccan phone number. Is this a scam attempt?

Hi everyone,

I'm looking to see if anyone has experienced a similar pattern of spam, false accusations, and phishing over WhatsApp recently.

What happened:
\* Initial Contact: I received WhatsApp messages( sometimes 100 in a row) from random international numbers with country codes like , +20 (Egypt), +967 (Yemen), and +966 (Saudi Arabia). Some started with simple bait like "Do you speak English?" or "Hey bro, need help?" in Hebrew, while others sent random promotional spam, referral links, or MLM scripts in Arabic.
\* False Accusation: they falsely claimed that I had insulted the Prophet Muhammad, clearly trying to manipulate my reactions, provoke anger, or trigger an emotional response.
\* SMS Bombing / OTPs: Over the past couple of days, I've also received automated SMS and email verification codes (OTPs) from platforms like Instagram and Facebook, even though I don't use or own active accounts there. It looks like they are feeding my phone number into various login pages to trigger notifications and test if I react.

My Response:
\* 2FA to all of my accounts.
\* I have not responded to any of their messages.
\* I blocked and reported every single number immediately.
\* I never clicked any links or shared any OTP codes.

Is this a known bot-driven spam/phishing campaign? How long do these automated attempt cycles usually last before they give up when completely ignored?

Thanks in advance for any insights!

Fairly sure I'm not the only one getting 6+ calls a day from these guys since Apr/May this year.

Their website is just a shell, trying to associate with the real company Anchor Lending who is working on a lawsuit now.

I'm on the DNC registry and they owe me over $100k now. I can't find the domain owner as they've hidden their information really well so I can't sue :( I'm about ready to offer a reward for it lmao

https://preview.redd.it/j01c3lrqp5kh1.png?width=661&format=png&auto=webp&s=d5c38d82b40ee23e3c24aa6e3729d6712b426c10

https://preview.redd.it/aliv05nup5kh1.png?width=676&format=png&auto=webp&s=bc40b96fe2a22ac878ddc05c3c0c72a3b9028f76

https://preview.redd.it/kk9rdtlxp5kh1.png?width=563&format=png&auto=webp&s=6a28e44ce16a57caa8762b9f845bbc1c84388887

I recieved an email of a GCash receipt that I did not pay for. For reference, I live in the United States and have not made any transactions to the Philippines. My card did not get charged, so I don't think this is my money being spent. I tried to see if someone had made an email on my account, but the logn says invalid, so I'm super confused if this is a phish or not.

Hello,

I recently came accoss some listings for an RV from the website liquidatebids.com this site is a total scam! Noway it's real.

They have a Facebook with 48 reviews all from 5 days ago.

They do not list vin numbers....all the photos look like they were stolen from Craigslist ads or something.

DO NOT SEND THEM MONEY!

https://preview.redd.it/060ei0eg6sjh1.png?width=1572&format=png&auto=webp&s=aee8d2035fd23628cc5524b1cfbafdb709eacbb2

So I accidentally clicked on that Update payment method link but midclick realized this is prob a scam cause wouldn't it say iCloud, and usually if my payment fails for my icloud storage, I get a notification from my iphone not email, but midclick i realized this and closed the window before it even finished loading, so I didn't even get to see how that page looked cause it was still blanked and loading, and then i went back to the email and its so obvious the sender is a scammer, will I be affected tho? I have a macbook btw

LI’m from India and for the past 4 days I’ve been getting 40+ calls every single day from completely unrelated companies.

The callers say that they received an enquiry/request from me through their website. The enquiries are for things I never requested, such as:

- Automobile showrooms — test ride requests

- Hospitals — appointment requests

- Real estate — property enquiries

- Policybazaar/insurance

- Personal loans

- Credit cards

- And many other random services

When I ask the callers why they are contacting me, they say something like “Someone has manually entered your details on our webpage” or that they received my details as a lead.

What concerns me is that they are providing my correct name, phone number and date of birth. I have not submitted any of these enquiries.

This has been happening continuously for the last 4 days, with 40+ calls per day, so it doesn't seem like a normal spam situation.

I’m worried that someone I know might be deliberately doing this, or that my personal information may have been leaked/misused somewhere.

Has anyone experienced something similar in India?

How can I find out where these enquiries are actually coming from or who is submitting them? Is there any way to trace the source/website/lead-generation company?

I’m planning to start asking every caller for the exact website/lead source, lead ID, and date/time when the enquiry was created.

Any advice on how I can stop this and identify the source would be really appreciated.

Thought I’d post on this sub too. So I recently got a text message from the number: 89854. The message stated: "[random letters] is your Instagram code. Don't share it. [more random letters]". They sent the same message again a minute later from the same number, just different number code thing. I found this odd because I know Instagram usually sends numbers rather than letters. And the whole text message seems odd to begin with. What's with the two sets of letters? My question is: is someone trying to access my Instagram account for real, like is the text legit, or is this just phishing and something spoofed the official instagram text and is pretending to be Instagram to scare me? I immediately changed my password through my Instagram app, and blocked the number. Never opened the messages or clicked anything, Any ideas? I’m worried. I feel like this is fake,but I’m not sure if it is real. No link or anything, just a random letter code. Again,which I find odd since Instagram uses number codes.

Hello all,

Just hoping I could get some insight into an incident that happened a couple days ago that has left me quite confused - I know a lot of members here are very knowledgeable when it comes to these things and can maybe help figure out how it all happened.

2 days ago I had a discussion with my dad about printing off a passport application document as our printer decided to stop working. This conversation happened in person and there was no discussion via text, email, about it. I attached the document and addressed to my dad's email address - I never sent the file however as I noticed I needed to change one thing on it.

About 2 hours later, my dad texted me saying he was having issues downloading the attachment, and if I could send it again in PDF form (of note, it was a standard PDF - downloaded right from the government of Canada website) and asked me to send it again. I was a little confused because I thought I just had it in the drafts but didn't think anything of it and figured I mouse slipped and sent it by accident. When I went back into my Gmail it was still sitting in my drafts. Again, I thought I had just sent another one by accident and didn't bother to check my outbox. He had no issue opening it this time and printed it.

Yesterday morning, I get a text from my dad saying they were having computer issues and took their laptop in to be diagnosed. The tech found malware, specifically, ScreenConnect.ClientSetup.msi. I then learned that the initial email that my dad thought I sent came from a different email address entirely: *myname-fakedomain* rather than, *myname-realdomain*. In the fake email there was a link to accept screen sharing capabilities, and unfortunately he clicked on it and the software was installed, meaning whoever had access to the computer had it for approx. 12hrs. The email that he received from the incorrect domain had the same subject line that my draft had.

They had some sensitive financial documents stored on their laptop, as well as personal information. All steps have been taken to contact our banks, credit card companies, Equifax, etc, so hopefully nothing comes of this. Also, we aren't certain exactly what these scammers were able to view and what they were looking for. They never locked the computer or demanded any ransom to unlock it either.

Seeing as how the email was sent had the same subject line, it seems to me (as well as all my extensive one-day of research with the assistance of google and AI), that someone must have had access to my Gmail. Windows Defender did not report any malicious attempts on my PC, and an offline scan also did not locate anything. I spent about 8 hours with the help of forums, Chat GPT, looking through files (Powershell logs, Google account connections, program files, etc) to try and find any sign that my PC has been compromised but everything has come back as ordinary and not concerning.

One thought was that I played Mecca Chameleon about a month ago and didn't delete all program files associated to the game after there was that malware release through some of the workshop levels. I didn't think it was necessary since I didn't play the map that apparently the software had been within. But I suppose it could have been in other levels that I had downloaded as well, just not the one that was being reported - the game has since been deleted in its entirety.

What would be the most likely explanation for all this? How would someone have gotten access to my Gmail without leaving any trace? I use my Google account to login/create profiles for different sites, YouTube, Alibaba, Airbnb, so on, but that's really it, and I don't find myself on sketchy domains. I also don't use my Gmail password for any of my other accounts, the password is a standalone - I've since changed my passwords and enabled 2FA on everything.

Any insight would be helpful and greatly appreciated. I'm not completely tech inept but really don't have a very deep understanding into this, and it's been driving me nuts.

Thanks to anyone who decided to read my novel and reach out!

Hey, I'll keep things simple, I placed an online order for the Gears of War E-Day collectors edition through Microsoft which allowed me to track its process through Shopify. Here's where things get uncomfortably suspicious, I received a letter from FedEx saying that an orders payment failed or something, I noticed almost immediately that it had the exact same day I had placed the pre order which was the 7th of this month (August). My roommate who's done logistics read the paper and attempted to explain that it's highly illogical for me to receive this letter as I am not the one "shipping it", meaning this letter is supposed to go to business owners or people who are shipping things. I verified before placing the pre-order that it was actually Microsoft and asked my friend if Shopify uses FedEx of which he said no. I'm admittedly on edge because 2 weeks ago, my partner got hacked by a discord phishing scam and money was stolen from me so I'm on high alert and suspicious of everything. The preorder was close to $350 so I just want things to go well. Basically, I have 2 questions, "does Shopify use FedEx?" And "is this letter bullshit?" It has a reference number or something on it, has a website that ends in .com but I can't shake the feeling. This isn't the first time I got tricked by a FedEx scam, 3 years ago by text but not by letter. Apologies for the wall of text.

Hi, basically, my email got involved in a data breach in 2024. Ever since then, i’ve been getting an insane amount of spam emails. I clicked on them at first because I didn’t understand what they were, but soon realized they were spam. I haven’t interacted with any since.

The thing is, the gmail spam filter often misses them. it’s extremely annoying, and i always report them as spam and move on. But it’s been making me feel a bit annoyed. Anything I can do? I don’t want to accidentally click on them or anything.