Email Scam Targeting Cell Customers

Another day, another scam. The latest and greatest scam involves cellphone, cable and utility bills. Scammers screenshot an actual bill likely stolen from someones mailbox, change the total and some other info then email it out en masse to whatever email addresses they have managed to get their hands on one way or another. The usual scam involves “Pay Now to Avoid Suspension” or other similar means to induce panic and get you to pony up some money to avoid disaster.

The emails look legit and include a link to pay that will take you to a cloned website. To avoid this and other similar scams, only pay your bills by directly going to the company website or using their official app. Do not click on links sent in emails if you believe them to be fraudulent.

Fraudulent emails often have the following red flags

❌ Email address is a bunch of nonsensical numbers and letters and not from an official company email address.

❌ The body of the email doesn’t look sharp and looks more like a scanned image

❌ Account number(s) is wrong

❌ The amount is different than what you are showing as due on the official company site or app.

❌ The link provided takes you to a website that looks different than the usual company site.

❌ The link doesn’t do anything or opens multiple windows thus potentially infecting your computer with a virus.

All of the above are red flags that something is off. Only pay your bills from official company sites or apps.