That’s a new one on me. Awful.

I had a similar experience some time back, with a FB message purportedly from a friend who's a senior and not super active on FB, but is a retired lawyer, and was very active in civic issues . Their claim was about a community grant fund that people who worked in public service could apply for, directing me to another FB user, who, of course appeared to be the scammer.

The language in the messages I received tipped me off and I registered a complaint against the person and notified my friend so she could as well. They used her FB profile photo, but there were some teeny tiny stickers on it that weren't apparent at first - esp. on a phone screen.

Also, FWIW, I saw a notice recently from the USPS about what they're calling 'smishing' - meaning scams through text messaging (SMS), pretending to be from the USPS about a package. They asked people to report any they get to USPS. I've been getting a number of those lately. I believe we had a recent discussion here about this and it seems that some new law - or lifting of one - here in our state might be related to this recent onslaught...?

We have been getting some weird spam messages here lately. I got two telling me my computer was hacked and they needed $700 to fix it. My husband got something weird that ended up being from some realtor, I think the Realtor's email had been hacked into. The email was definitely a phishing scam.

No reason to get upset or worry. Such things are now very common, simply ignore what you don’t like

I had an odd thing happen recently, not sure if it was phishing or?? Got a text that said,” Bob? It’s Nancy. We gave our numbers at Jim’s party last week.” I felt bad that she had the wrong # and intended to text to let her know. But when I sat down to do so, it just seemed to me there was something off. Like I’ve never sent a text to someone saying their name with a question mark. why would it not be Bob if he gave her that numer? And the wording about exchanging numbers was odd. So I decided either he gave her a fake# or she dialed wrong or it was a scam. So I deleted and blocked. If it was for real I hope she found him.

Oly, I've gotten two like that in the past few months.

Best thing to do is do not post any information someone can use. It's hard to do when you think its a friend.

I recently bought a copy of the book "Scam Me If You Can". It was published a few years back and I had heard of some of the scams, but I think I will be better off once I finish reading the whole thing. I think it is definitely handy to keep up as far as reading updates about the latest scams (thank you Joann) and I think the more you read, the more attuned you may be to the small things in a scam that don't seem quite right and recognize them as a red flag.

Husband and I were sitting at home when a call came in from our own phone number?? Didn’t answer it.

Heard on TV that garage door openers are being stolen from vehicles and used to gain entry into the garage and then the house. I carry mine in my purse now.

I lock both my car and house doors.

Husband phoned a company last month to order a home improvement product. Turns out the phone number he was connected with was two digits away from what he dialed. Whoever answered pretended to be a salesman, took husbands order, and bullied him into giving our checking account plus routing numbers before husband had time to think and hang up. Next day we were signed up for several automatic deduction item-of-the-month clubs. $3.47 in fake charges, several trips to the local bank ( 1.5 miles from house) and problem seems to be solved.

I've been getting daily emails from USPS about a package waiting for me... click here. I hit SPAM!

The mashed up English in the OP's example is a clear red flag from the very first sentence.

Maybe, or maybe a quickly typed/talk to text message. They are often pretty garbled. We are sent trainings monthly at work about email scams. Some are very slick so I wouldn't count on them being poorly worded. I use a couple different emails. One just for ordering items as I think they are the most vulnerable to spreading my information around. It's curious to me that it's never my gmail that gets these phishing scams.

"are you informed?"

An American English speaker would have said, "Have you heard of this?" (I agree floraluk2)

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I was working on a rental yesterday and a salesman with a "Pure water" logo on his shirt came to the front door. I told him I wasn't interested, so he stepped back several steps and kept talking, very softly...almost mumbling....so I would have to open the front door and step out to hear him....NO......I hear you...."The water in this part of town is not safe to drink he said." I sneered at him....said "I get paid by the hour"....I'm NOT interested....please leave. (I was holding a taping mud pan in my hands)

Scammers are everywhere....and they seem to be multiplying....:0)

Police know that this is the season grifters do their Christmas Shopping in our town. Mostly they just look for easy entry to houses during the day. There are also scams where a fake utility rep lures a homeowner out the front door while another person enters the home for a quick grab. This is not the time to be 'polite' or 'kind', or feel embarrassed. Utilities will notify you by mail if a visit is scheduled. Don't open the door, and do call the police.

The poor English is way beyond the vagaries of talk to text. Yes, some are slick but this example definitely isn't.

Don't just rely on language to ID spams/scams, because with AI, you'll see better writing, syntax, etc in the future.