Skip to main content

Looking for answers? This scam email is from the 'beyond'

In these uncertain times, don’t you wish that you could wave your worries goodbye? The latest scam email is from a medium, who promises that the ‘Spiritual World’ has pointed its attention to you, and your worries will belong to the past forever. 

This scam email provides us with the perfect opportunity to discuss social engineering, as well as how to spot the hallmarks of a phishing email.

What is social engineering?

Social engineering is the act of manipulating an individual’s emotions and natural tendencies, for the purpose of acquiring information and/or for financial gain. For example, a scammer may adopt the identity of an IT support engineer in order to convince you that your computer has been hacked, or a bank assistant in order to convince you that your account has been compromised.

From a psychological perspective, adopting the identity of someone in authority is incredibly powerful. We’re used to depending on people in authority to solve problems, particularly where the problem is something out of our immediate control (like a bank account) or something that we might not have a great deal of knowledge about (like the security of your computer). When we’ve been told that something has gone wrong, it’s comforting to know that someone is able to solve the problem for us. 

Social engineering scams exploit the trust we have for people in positions of authority, as well as the fear we feel around something that is outside of our control, or that we feel uncertain about. 

A message from the beyond

The email from Medium Amanda doesn’t neatly fit into this definition of social engineering; however, many of the tactics used are the same ones we’d find in a phishing email, or a fake IT support call. 

The email from Medium Amanda has the subject line, ‘I have important news for you!’. Just like a phishing email, the intention is for you, the receiver, to open the email quickly and without thinking too much. Something has also gone slightly wrong in the header; we assume it is supposed to read, ‘Dear Transcendit’.

The second paragraph of Medium Amanda’s email is an interesting one, and shares a number of the hallmarks of romance fraud. There are a huge number of assessments of your character here, the majority of them complimentary, ‘you are a very special person’, and ‘you often worry - not just about yourself, but also about others’. 

The intention of these statements is to ‘prove’ Medium Amanda’s legitimacy; how can she possibly know all of these details if she wasn’t in touch with great spiritual powers? Unfortunately, the statements are also intentionally wide reaching and could apply to the majority of people; many people have experienced worry that has kept them from sleeping.

In this section we’re trying to be convinced of the sender’s authority, as well as being complimented sufficiently that we don’t see through this weird scam and send the email to junk.

As you can see, the email is littered with links, which when hovered over look to take us to Medium Amanda’s website. The links themselves, just like links in phishing emails are designed to convince you to click - ‘all of your financial worries will belong to the past’, ‘click here in order to make your greatest wish come true’. 

Unless your greatest wish is to lose an awful lot of time and money to a scammer on the internet, we’d remind you to never click a link in an email from an unknown sender. You can hover your cursor over the link to see where it’s planning on sending you.

Finally, there’s a deadline, ‘this unique offer is only valid for 3 days’. The deadlines in phishing emails are designed to encourage you to click first, think later - because the longer you spend looking at an email like this, the more likely you’re able to tell that it’s fraudulent. Phrases such as ‘don’t miss this opportunity!’ ‘React now’ and ‘I am sure that you really should accept this offer’ are all there to convince you to respond.

What’s so convincing about this scam?

Obviously, this scam email is pretty silly, and we’re imagining it gets less responses than an email from someone pretending to be TV Licensing. However, the email does play on emotions to a much greater extent than some of the phishing emails that we’ve seen.

Whoever or whatever is behind the Medium Amanda email, it plays on the vulnerability of its recipients. Those experiencing a great deal of stress, anxiety, financial trouble and even loneliness are uniquely vulnerable to these kinds of scams, which plays into the idea that there could be a quick fix or an easy solution. 

Generally, phishing emails, fake phone calls and scams follow this pattern; playing on the vulnerability of individuals and exploiting them for personal gain. Remember to slow down, don’t click the links and think carefully - and if you’re unsure about the legitimacy of an email, get in touch with your friendly IT support team.

Tweet us @TranscenditUK


The Transcendit Way

Transcendit understand that when you choose to work with us, whether we're taking care of your IT, app or web development, you're trusting us with part of your business. So whether we're looking after your computers, phone systems or servers we always do things 'the Transcendit way'.

The whole of our team adhere to the same values, beliefs and policies - the principles that were written when Transcendit first formed in 2000. Whether you come to us for cloud services or recovery backup you can be confident that you'll always receive the same excellent service.

The Transcendit way outlines how we do business; following the same straightforward principles with every client and customer, regardless of how big or small they may be.

That means we get to know you and your business. We offer you a friendly, professional and efficient service, and we'll always be honest with you.
We understand that not everybody speaks fluent IT, so we try to explain things in a way that is simple and clear. We always spend as much time as is necessary explaining things to you.
If you need to talk to us about something, no matter how insignificant, we are only ever a phone call away – and we’re never too busy to make you a cup of tea and have a sit down with you in person.
We understand how frustrating it can be when things are late. When we schedule an appointment with you, we are there when you’re expecting us. If something prevents us from getting there, we always call you in advance to let you know.
Sometimes things can go wrong, but we never lie to you or try to cover something up. If things go askew we tell you what’s happened and how we plan to prevent it affecting your business.
We want you to continuously benefit from working with us. We regularly discuss your business and make suggestions for improving systems and processes wherever we can – but we never try to push you into a purchase.
When we quote a fixed price, that's always the amount we charge – you won’t find any nasty surprises on a bill from us. If you are paying by time and materials, we inform you if our approximations could change.
We understand the importance of privacy for your business and your customers. We respect the confidentiality of your data, and we will never pass on your information to third parties.
We appreciate it when you take the time to give us feedback. A system called CustomerSure records our client's responses, so you can trust that our reviews are from real people.
Find out what they're saying here.
Excellent service, as ever, and very prompt. It's very reassuring to know the support is there. Sharon Langridge, Langridge Employement Law

Based on 12075 reviews our customers rate us 9.8/10. Reviews and ratings by Customersure. 09-October-2024

Transcendit are proud sponsors of CHUF, the Children's Heart Unit Fund.

Transcendit is a Living Wage employer
Transcendit is a Microsoft Gold certified partner
VMWARE partner
Vipre partner
IPCortex partner
WithSecure partner
DELL partner
Barracuda partner
Veeam partner
N-Able partner