I think we live in a world where even if its not out of the realm of possibility, but it's never happened before, verifying is prudent. Sad situation when we don't know real from lies from scams from need.

I got a similar email, friend asking if I ever ordered from Amazon--and that friend would NEVER have asked me that.

Thanks for the heads up on that one….I’ll pass it on

I have heard of .this.

Another is a small amount that they say you owe for E-Z Pass is texted to you.

Last week, I got one from the correct email address- subject was

EXCLUSIVE INVITATION FROM the person's name..

They actually have sent evites for some big parties and celebrations, so I opened the email.

My guard was up though, because this was to my rarely used AOL email.

The email looked totally legit, and said something about Punchbowl Invite click here.......

I texted the supposed sender asking if she;d sent it and she texted right away that it was scam.

It really looked like a party invitation.

I got an similar email last year which appeared to be from a brother. I did answer it and "they" followed up with a lame excuse that their Amazon connection wasn't working and if I could order something for them. That reply seemed too suspect so I contacted my brother directly and he told me he was hacked and apparenly his contact list was stolen. I didn't answer a 2nd time and never was contacted again.

I got the same one as salonva -- the one that looks like a party invitation. In my hurriedness, Dummy Me emailed the person asking if they sent it. If course they replied and said yes. I was busy so never got around to clicking on the invitation, and the real person called me a short while later to tell me she got hacked and don't click on that invitation.

I am SO GLAD she called -- I don't know where my head was that day, I know better than to email to ask if it was legit, I should have called her to ask. I feel like I dodged a bullet on that one. The only reason she knew she got hacked is because someone else called her to ask her about it.

Havent gotten that one yet, but I get the EZ Pass text all the time. I get suspicious when I am addressed by my full name instead of the shortened version. ( such as Elizabeth when I might go by Liz — but thats not my name).

Werent you smart to check first.

Always go out of the email and contact in a different wsy.

With the rise of AI now...you must ALSO be cautious of messages delivered in a FAKE familiar voice, such as those requesting money or personal information-people can easily be decieved. This is why it is critical the U.S. needs to lead the global AI race to ensure the development of secure technologies we can trust.

Wow, I had never heard of that before. Thanks for the warning. I do get notices from EZPass almost every week that I owe money but I haven't been on the turnpike in a few years, and even then, it wasn't my car. I get emails that I have a gift waiting for me at different places, Lowes, Harbor Freight, Kohls, and Home Depot. I guess people respond to that one, but why?

" I received an email from a good friend today saying hi and something like, "I have a quick question "

It wasn't "received" from a good friend. It was an email that had your friend's email address shown as the sender. But she wasn't the sender. It's a tactic called "spoofing"

This prank used to be very common. 10 years ago and more, back in the more innocent days of internet use by individuals. I could receive messages like this as much as weekly sometimes.

The info was obtained by the evil doers either by accessing insecure email servers or things like user/member data from poorly protected websites.

I remember one time getting almost daily emails of various topics from one of my fellow retired partners. He had been contacted by a flood of people he knew complaining about the same emails -it was apparent that his "contact list" contained in the records of his email provider had been accessed and the names used for daily spoofing for about a week.

The lesson to be learned from this experience isn't a new one - never click on links contained in emails, even those from familiar people or companies, that weren't recently solicited by you or expected.

I say this because, as an example, just last week I was on a phone call with my cellular provider making a plan change. The agent said "I'm going to send you a link right now, click it to go to a page where you need to manually enter your agreement to the change." Links like this, or from your pharmacy reminding you to "click here" renew a prescription, should not be feared.

My favorite scam was when my mom got a call saying her grandson was in jail and she needed to send money immediately. She took all the info, including my son’s ”case number”. Then she called my other son who lives nearby to let him know and to NOT tell me! Fortunatelysly, ds#2 knew it was a scam and stopped her before she sent any money. She was probably in her 90s and completely unfamiliar with this sort of stuff.

We still laugh about it but it could have been sad if she’d actually sent money.

My son’s SO’s mother nearly sent a bunch of gift cards somewhere. Again, good fortune, the clerks in the store where she bought them alerted the family ( small town) before she sent them. She was still stuck with$500 worth of purchased gift cards.

I recently had to do a security training at work about deep fakes. We're at the point where it's getting very difficult to tell the difference between real and fakes, for now it's still possible with some simple detection strategies and yes there are digital forensics experts but give it a few more years and even they might not be able to tell the difference. I'm terrified for the future -- we're all screwed.

So we don't know what happens if you open the invite? They get access to your address book I assume. To what end? They can send these fakes to others and get more addresses? I don't see the upside for them. My favorite scam was when my pastor wrote asking if I had time to do him a favor. I found the email hours after he sent it as I had been at work. I assumed whatever the task was already done as this is how he functions NOW and go go go go. Nope he still needed me to go help him gift his staff. Would I get some GIFT CARDS for him. DING DING DING. Luckily gift cards are a scam I always recognize even when I don't check the email address before I open an email. I said sure, they told me how to send the numbers to them. I waited an hour or so. They came back at me did I get them. I said Yes I sent then to the church... (of course I would use the regular parish email). They said oh they didn't arrive so why don't I just hit reply and send them. I waited and eventually they asked again did I resend them. So I said, Pastor I just decided it would be easiest to text them to your phone. I never heard from them again. I learned my lesson. When in doubt hover over the from email!!! Also my parish has a mass 'constant contact' email it sends out once a week. HUGE mistake. It or someone in it was hacked so now the entire parish is vulnerable. It's been in the bulletin for a few weeks running--people are getting the same email I did....

"So we don't know what happens if you open the invite? They get access to your address book I assume. To what end? They can send these fakes to others and get more addresses? I don't see the upside for them"

It can be a way for them to load malware/spyware on your device.

Thanks for the heads up! Hadn't heard of THIS one....

People lost over $12B to these type of scams in 2024, according to the FTC:

https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2025/03/new-ftc-data-show-big-jump-reported-losses-fraud-125-billion-2024

Gaining access to someone's contacts offers even more opportunity to scam even more people - and who else has their bank, credit card co. etc. in their contacts?.

@ ded - years ago, my elderly mom made it all the way to Target to buy a gift card for her nephew who was supposedly in jail asking for bail money. Fortunately, staff members there halted that right away.

Also wanted to add that just replying to such general queries shows the scammers they got a working number/email. Since millions of folks use Amazon, the odds are good that somebody will take the bait.

“…never click on links contained in emails, even those from familiar people or companies, that weren't recently solicited by you or expected.”

Always good advice!

" It can be a way for them to load malware/spyware on your device. "

Absolutely! Some of the worst spyware has been installed on people's phones and computers in just that way. Read Pegasus. It was really creepy, and it was news over a decade ago.

Still, in most cases, they're looking for more data and contacts, scams rely on volume; if they're only successful 2% of the time, the bigger the number of contacts, the bigger their 2% success.

Just adding that this morning- I got AGAIN that

Special Invitaton from the same friend- and this time it says.

Surprise Luau Party for Bob.

So they are enhancing it. ( still with Punchbowl)... made me really stop in awe because really who among us does not know a Bob? And again the supposed sender is actually someone who does have lots of outdoor parties at her house.......I guess this was just a lucky coincidence but it's scary too because her contact list is massive and I can see people not questioning it.