@@bmo14lax I'd argue with that argument because have you seen the ways panicked people "deal with" stressors? Also basing that argument on what our bodies are "tuned" for is a textbook naturalistic fallacy: just cause our evolution produced something doesn't mean it's rational or leads to outcomes we like. Nature doesn't have moral implications it just IS.
My IT teacher in school actually gave me a valuable lesson back then. He said to never click the links in emails I receive, instead, if there might be a problem with any of my accounts, just go to the normal login page and try logging in like you'd usually do. Also I should never open any attached stuff from unknown sources as there is a high possibility that it contains a virus or malware. That man probably saved me from getting scammed a few times and I salute him. Edit: ok I had paused the video while writing the comment, so I hadn't watched the end bit yet where you have given this exact advice xD But it's a good piece of advice that you can't give enough nowadays.
I believe if you are stupid enough to do blatantly stupid things then nature selection... Like get this theres a global pandenic going on of a supposedly deadly virus.. I go to walmart guess what i see? A mother with a newborn or very young toddler. Ya know someone with no immune system.. In a public place with potentially deadly virus about... Good job mom... Whats worse is when they have a dude with em.. Meaning 1 the mom could go shopping. 2 the dad or bf or what have you could go shopping 3 they could get a sitter 4 they could ask family or a friend to watch the kid and go shopping For no reason would you ever have a reason to TAKE A FUCKING BABY TO A PUBLIC AREA DURING QUARANTINE So if your on of the numbnuts doing this stop it. Although if your this stupid then perhaps societys better off without your flawed genes
@@AtomicShrimp I wish this were the case. Our IT department drives this message home repeatedly and consistently, only to be undermined by heads of the organization. I frequently receive unsolicited emails from higher-ups telling me to follow links to various things which could easily be navigated to. These official emails also contain many of the grammatical errors we use to find and ignore scam emails. Edit: I should add that these aren't test emails crafted by our IT department.
@@colewilder7353 Riiight. I believe Atomic Shrimp would suggest that YOU may know not because of some fundamental Platonic knowledge of this 'thing' but because you've heard of it. Also, your own grammar suggests you could very well be "then stupid" and "perhaps societys" better off without your flawed behaviour. It has nothing to do with genes, however.
I used to think no one actually read emails from unknowns. Then, my wife asked what she should do about her windows account being suspended. She read the email on the very machine that was suspended.
There's a telephone scam here in Canada where Microsoft supposedly is calling to advise you, your account has been hacked. Then the "cust.service rep." Talks you through the steps to fix the issue. Step one: give the rep control of your computer. Step two: pay $3000 in Google Play cards to have your computer unlocked People fall for this crap.
I got a call from "the Social Security Administration" saying my account had been cancelled. On the very day my SSA disability check had landed in the bank. Hmmmm ... nothing suspicious THERE.
I cannot stress enough how important it is for someone to say, "Never click a link in an email with only a few exceptions". Even on warning emails that are plausible, or occur around the same time of month like billing notifications, I still _never_ click links in emails. I just go to the websites that I know for certain are from that sender. Even if the email from my bank is legitimate, and they are still telling me that I must do something "urgently" I'll log in to the website that I know is theirs manually. Companies should just stop sending "convenience links" to people in emails because of this exact kind of discussion. If companies don't send links to you, then you know not to click emails that do have links. Simple.
@@AtomicShrimp caution okay say that happens in a year or two maybe ten the scammers with stop using link asking you to go to a fake site like instead of yourlegitbank. com they will have a yourlegltbank. com How many people will spot that has the wrong site? First try? Also i spaced it because i didn't wanna make a link to anything that'll be bad.
@@colewilder7353 there's nothing a scammer can do to make a person type in the wrong web address for their bank. if they put a link to yourlegltbank in the email, you'd know it's a fake because yourlegitbank doesn't put courtesy links in their emails. So you'd type your bank's URL in your browser, go there, log in, and find that there's nothing wrong with your account.
@@chester4851 sorry - I actually lost this account and had to make a new one because it didn't have 2-factor authentication on it. Let that be a lesson to always set it up. Anyways, most likely? It'll direct you to a login page that looks like it's legitimate, but will actually send your credentials to the scammer's servers so they can steal whatever info you type into it. But, even more dangerously, some pages can actually steal info from your cookies like your google credentials, for instance. I've heard of that being a thing - not sure if Google found a way to fix this problem or not. What's also very likely is they'll know that you clicked the link regardless of their strategy. It'll probably put your email address on a mailing list as a "potential target" for future scams. It tells them that 1) there's actually someone who checks that email address, and 2) that the person answering has the potential to not catch scams before clicking a link, which makes them more likely to fall for a scam later than someone who doesn't even click the link and ignores it. That second part is also why you should never plug one of these links into virustotal, no matter how curious you are. Sure, if you think it's real but you don't know, it can be OK. However, Virustotal still sends a request to the server, which will be logged and it'll flag whatever phone number or email associated with that specific address as "viable" and will lead to more scam email/texts. So, I wouldn't do it if you're pretty sure it's a scam.
Major tip: If you still aren't sure about the email, log onto the website and contact customer support. If that means calling someone, do it. But if you followed the great advice in the video, you should be golden! also love your channel, really awesome content! Great to listen to when doing gaming or whatever
Thank you. Now instead of having a 3 day argument with friends and family to convince them of the precarious situation they are in, I can just force them to watch your entertaining and informative videos. And people dare to suggest _you're_ wasting time?!
I've found that the simple piece of evidence that works in almost every single situation is that you can always just check whatever problem has occurred by going to the site directly. The only exception is if it's something like a confirmation email, but that email was actuated by your own actions, so it's easy to see as safe. I sorely feel that you brushed over the importance of this simple solution since it takes no thinking on the receiver's end.
If 'the Lord's work' is to warn people against scammers and phishing then why doesn't he get on with it, instead of expecting Atomic Shrimp to do it for him? Or is 'the Lord' just lazy? There's no call to bring religion into this - or into anything.
Really appreciate your work in this mate. When it comes to emails it is a process that requires digesting several things but once you actually know what those things are it is simple to understand. My own interpretation is: 1. Companies will not make things urgent over email, ever. If it truly is urgent you don't get an email, you get it via postage. 2. Anything asking for verification will only be in response to your own actions. 3. Every single thing that requires you to log in will be able to be done by you spending the minute to ask google to send you to the page rather than click a link. If you have even 1% doubt if something is real, do it manually. Companies never ask for login info randomly, the few times they do so will fall under #2 and be in a direct response to your own action
Your best advice is get out of the email and log in to your account. Don't click on the links in an email even if it "looks legit" is really excellent advice. Thanksyou.
I would argue that this video was one of your most funny videos. Also, at 3:15 (The iTunes email), I would also find the horribly long subject line concerning. I have never seen such a long subject line, ever.
Brilliant video! I want to add something we studied in computer science in my IGs, and even before that in middle school: Companies such as Facebook, Amazon, PayPal and whatnot will NEVER ask for neither any personal information nor payment over email.
Excellent. I retired from a US technical school where I provided IT support to staff and faculty. I wish every one of my users would have watched this video. Cheers.
Maybe writing like this: "Hello dear! I am contacting you with regards to *something or other*. Eye got your contact eenfo from da publeec dom-main, so please be rest assured that dis is no scam and u WILL NOT hav any re-grets in dealing with dis transacseeon. Please get back to me ASAP! Thanksyou" Is intentional...
Yup - that's not a bad idea - many organisations have dedicated mailboxes set up for reporting spoof emails - and at least some of those organisations actively work to try to shut down the scams
@@alienpoker if it affects their brand image (ie people reporting their computer got affected negatively due to what they saw as a paypal email), they most likely would
I never clicked a phishing e-mail before, but I've been curious as to what happens after that. Now, that curiosity has never pushed me to do the deed, but you satisfying it in a safe manner in the next video is certainly interesting. Awaiting more!
You will be taken to a fake website that is dressed up like the actual one. It will ask for various things, and then use that information to do bad things to you.
This is really good. Because I know how to spot a scammer, but when I'm trying to teach or advise someone else I've never been able to put it into words.
I watched a very strange 1 minute long advert just to let you have the revenue. I really like your channel! Sorry that I can't afford to support you on Patreon. Please keep up the good work, though!
Hey, It's not watching the full add that earns the creator the big bucks. It's clicking the ads/links. But I didn't tell you that and you should not for any reason do that, because that would be a ToS violation. I don't support that type of stuff *cough* *cough*
@@ksaspectre it is a ToS violation to click on ads on youtube? That makes no sense. And if you're talking about intentionally clicking them, i don't think they would know lmao
I had a brilliant individual send me a mail once that told me I had been hacked and in order to reclaim my account, I simply had to open an attached file and follow the instructions in it.
I keep receiving emails that tell me my TV Licence is about to be revoked if I don't pay a fee immediately. (And they do follow up a day or two later.) Fortunately, I know that it is a scam, but at a quick glance, they could panic someone into clicking. I always stop and think and then access my relevant account via the channels I would normally use rather than their link. I am grateful that you take the time to bait these guys, and make these videos.
This was hilarious, loved it! You must've spent so much time editing showing all the ridiculous spelling/grammer/keyboard mashing! Great job, will be showing this to my grandmother!
I'm glad people are still making up to date (or at least reasonably up to date) videos on phishing scams. The internet is no safer than it was 20 years ago, and there are still people out there who fall for this kind of stuff. It's always good to have informational content out there, just in case
How good of you to tip off the scammers with specific examples. If people can't figure out that bad grammar is a clue, they deserve to learn the hard way.
The scammers aren't trying to get the grammar right - they don't want semi-observant people to click through, because those are the people who might realise their mistake in time to correct it. so by trying to increase the level of observation, I am trying to help potential victims - there's no real sense in which I am teaching the scammers to write better scams - they are not trying to do that
You're doing an amazing work, man. I've been trying to warn my mom about physhing and Facebook scams for a while and your videos might help me a lot. She doesn't even know what physhing is, but honestly, I don't think she'll ever fall for it, solely because her inbox is such a mess that every single e-mail that's not from a close relative or friend gets lost in the void and ignored forever.
...Okay, but I might just start signing informal things off with "thanksyou". It's such a perfect mix of "thanks" and "thank you", I can't help but like it. I once had one of these emails from UPS (supposedly)- it was formatted well, had a big chunk of legal speak at the bottom saying a real address from Ontario (a friend of mine there recognised the street), some copyrights, a thing about unsubscribing, and (being Canada) even had a French translation, though I can't speak for the accuracy. But despite all that, the main body of the email was full of grammatical errors, and both the link provided and the email address didn't seem right. Makes you wonder if they just copied it from a real email? Anyways, thanksyou for the work you do on these videos :)
Probably the best advice I've ever gotten about email scams is 'if there's a real problem, you'll be able to find out by logging into your account'. If I got a decent enough looking phising email from PayPal and it said I had since unusual transactions on my account, I could just go to PayPal and look. No need to interact with emails I'm certain are FROM PayPal, so why interact with ones I'm not sure about?
I love how hard he's trying to be patient and put on a kind teacher persona but you can just FEEL his frustration mounting at every "WHY would you click on that??"
You're not wrong. At work, I get the same people coming back to me again and again saying "What about this one? - should I click this one?" and I just can't help wanting to shout "Why don't you just remember the answer from last time you asked?!"
Also, the 'your location' may vary by your ISP. (in the legit messages section). If you think "I'm not in [city]"... check where your ISP is registered. Major ones like sky and virgin and BT often have local data centres. Smaller ISP's may be less localized.
I got a email for a recall on my oculus quest, so instead of clicking the link in the email I just went onto the official website and turns out it was legitimate! Thanks for teaching me not to click links in emails!
I also would like to agree and say just go straight to your account and log in there, regardless of how good the email looks. One other thing I notice. Some scammers change the name/user of the senders email to a proper sounding email address. The real email address only becoming visible by clicking a small down arrow next to the name/hovering over the name/clicking on the name (depends on your email host (hotmail/google/yahoo)). Most people would not think to do this and would assume it’s a real email.
if I'm ever put in charge of training employees at some company on how to avoid email scams, I'm using this series as a basis. This is one of the best crash courses in "how to not be a gullible idiot with your account security" I've seen in quite some time. Thanks for doing this! I should also probably ask, in case that hypothetical situation of me training people becomes real, whether you're okay with your intellectual property being used in this way (either directly or derivatively, and not necessarily limited to this specific set of 3 videos)? I think it's probably safe to assume "yes" since we both have the same goal of making people less... gullible... but better safe than sorry!
Great advice! I'm sure, in my cautiousness, I have deleted a legitimate email once or twice. Ooops. And guess what!!? My world didnt end. So people just need to chill and err on the side of caution. Thanks for the vid!! Cheers!!
This is an excellent description about Scammer emails. I sometimes get these types on my Hotmail account. I try to block the sender address. Sure enough I get more of the same type. The problem is the account shown is different. Blocking the source email address does not work with these. I now simply delete these garbage emails.
Thanks - always useful to be updated on what the latest scams or phishing tricks are. Once I "won" a big sum in a lottery - funny, as I had not bought any lottery tickets.... - I just deleted the whole mail.. Regards from Sweden!
I stumbled upon your page just by watching one of your scammer videos and was also intrigued that you make other videos. I live in the states and was curious what foods you have and saw that you do stuff in a can, must say I love your videos ( all of them) and will continue to watch them
"you can not access your PayPal account" Well thanks, it's good to know that I do in fact have the ability and option to not access my PayPal account. I was worried that I was legally required to access it regularly.
Many many moons ago, back in probably 1972 I attended the NCOES (Non-commissioned officers education system) at Fort Lewis Washington. It was a VERY intense course requiring us to maintain a bunk and locker in the barracks even though most of us lived off post with our wives and family. The course hours were 4:00 AM till 9:00 PM, and included both office and field exercises. The main thing we were scored on was "ATTENTION TO DETAIL" and we eared both merits and demerits for acting on such petty things as an instructor with an unbuttoned back pocket, or his rank insignia off center on his collar. I passed the course with an average score, and it was enough to add to my promotion score, the following promotion board saw me rise from Corporal to Sergeant. This course has served me well throughout my life, I can credit it for my success through the ranks of the Police Department from recruit to Chief of Police over my career, and was a great background when I served as a criminal investigator with the PD mid-career. Such a skill would serve everyone who now has to contend with long distance crime from India and Africa.
I loved this video, and I think I'm going to keep this link on my desktop to share with the dullards I have to deal with. Thanks for sharing your experiences. Great video.
Great video! The most obvious sign in ALL these phishing emails is that they are NOT ADDRESSED TO YOU. Only to your email address. All these companies know who you are and where you are and all about you. I like these daft order numbers etc. Always a big giveaway!
Can't wait to see the next video. Always wondered what happened when you clicked on it. Another tip is usually if you put you mouse on the button without clicking, you should see the URL. And for phishing emails it usually doesn't show the right domain name
I love how you start with just one "Bad Grammar/Syntax" box, then end up with a bunch of arrows coming from it. Also on the subject of grammar, colons sometimes have two spaces after them instead of just one (no big deal), and *'til* is short for until; *till* is only about digging up dirt. And that one IS a big deal. Like you say in the video: it's not about who's good or bad at it, it's about all of us getting better. So to the random person reading this... unless you're talking about gardening, STOP USING TILL!
I’m enjoying this series, I waste scam callers time by responding to them in Miskito which is an obscure native language from Nicaragua which I picked up while living there 10 years ago
I recently got an email supposedly from PayPal... It was addressed to my sister, with her full name, (she has a very unusual name) it had PayPal branding, perfect grammar and was quite formal. It instructed me to click on a link that would take me to view my transaction history. It looked very official, even with a section saying 'how do I know this isn't a phishing scam' and a part about donating to charity. The problem is: A) neither my sister nor myself has a PayPal account B) my sister would never sign up to something with my email because she has no idea what my email is, let alone if I have one C) I never received a confirmation email (you know, like thanks for making an account, verify your email address) when this very 'real' PayPal account was supposedly created So how did they know my sister's name??? It wasn't a lucky guess because it was her full name. I must stress that her first and last names are incredibly uncommon
The problem with worrying about grammar in email text is that most people will only skim the text at best, mainly cause most people get dozens or hundreds of emails every day. You are 100% right that vigilance is the best cure for scamming/phishing.
Thankfully I haven’t fallen for any of the fake emails I’ve received. That being said I will be sending a link to this video to a couple of friends that I know would fall for them. Thank you
What a relief - often wondered what was going on with the poorly written emails from PayPal and others. Fortunately I ignored them and deleted them but it's good to know I did the right thing.
I just love how you read the exact way the email was written 😂 "Hello dear" 🤣 I love the ones that I receive of accounts that I don't have. I also know how to read headers in emails. Today unknowns send job lead links so I never click on any of them.
One thing I’ve seen numerous times is that scammers tend to send me an email as a blind copy, and the primary recipient is some equally obscure address as the sender. This is obviously so that they can send out a single email to a ton of people. No real email from company like this would make you a blind copy
Weird, when i first found this video last year, like about a month later I got this weird "iTunes purchase" e-mail twice in the same month. I don't have an iTunes account either. Btw, I always check the e-mail addresses first to determine if the e-mails are genuine. Bad grammar/typos just stick out to me like a sore thumb for some reason.
Great advice, but comes with a small problem. A scammer watching this video would now have a few tips on producing more convincing emails by avoiding the mistakes you've pointed out. Loads of those scam emails are as you say, very easy to spot - but they're not all like that, I guess you can't be too careful! Great video sir, keep up the good work.
I don't think the scammers want to fix the grammar issues - they are part of a filter; anyone attentive enough to spot them is not a productive mark for the scam - they want to deal only with people who are going to go through the whole process without a clue
I always laugh when I get an email threatening to suspend or delete an account for an app/facility I don't use, like WhatsApp, iTunes, Amazon Prime, even Disney+ just recently (yes the Disney+ scam emails have already begun)! 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
My downfall is doubting if my brain comprehended the sentence properly or the sentence is just nonsensical however, I never click links in emails because I have common sense. Helpful vid.
Very funny, mate, but that does not always help. I am not a person who normally uses antiviruses, but I did a BitDefender scan today and found out there was a coin miner in my System32. Things happen and common sense cannot prevent it.
No idea. Never downloaded any suspicious files or pirated anything, but somehow I still got it. Maybe some pop-up I closed too late. Nevertheless, common sense doesn't always help.
I often get phishing emails supposedly from my boss. I know they're not real because the email uses polite words, like 'please', and 'thank you...
That detail has saved our own accounts department from being fooled once or twice too!
💪🤣
😂😂😂😂
Ha
XD 🤣
"There is no such thing as a real-world situation that is improved by panic." Ah, some solid words of wisdom right there.
I would argue the exact opposite as our bodies literally are tuned to deal with great panic in milliseconds, it's called fight or flight.
@@bmo14lax I'd argue with that argument because have you seen the ways panicked people "deal with" stressors?
Also basing that argument on what our bodies are "tuned" for is a textbook naturalistic fallacy: just cause our evolution produced something doesn't mean it's rational or leads to outcomes we like. Nature doesn't have moral implications it just IS.
@@NovemberXXVII Nature doesn't have moral implications but it DOES have survival implications.
Panic is used in nature all the time for good reasons, and by people as well. Just think about it a little harder.
@@bmo14lax if you don't panic, you can make a better 'fight or flight' decision. You conflated 'adrenaline' with 'panic'.
Imagine how much more money I'd have if I had proper grammar.
Yep
Stay at school Nigerian kids
If only they'd used Grammarly....
@@sierramike2113 In?
Ironically, the grammar of this comment doesn't have any mistakes.
My IT teacher in school actually gave me a valuable lesson back then. He said to never click the links in emails I receive, instead, if there might be a problem with any of my accounts, just go to the normal login page and try logging in like you'd usually do. Also I should never open any attached stuff from unknown sources as there is a high possibility that it contains a virus or malware. That man probably saved me from getting scammed a few times and I salute him.
Edit: ok I had paused the video while writing the comment, so I hadn't watched the end bit yet where you have given this exact advice xD But it's a good piece of advice that you can't give enough nowadays.
Yep. We're getting to a point soon, I think, where no reputable business will ever ask you to click on a link or open an attachment via email.
I believe if you are stupid enough to do blatantly stupid things then nature selection...
Like get this theres a global pandenic going on of a supposedly deadly virus.. I go to walmart guess what i see?
A mother with a newborn or very young toddler. Ya know someone with no immune system.. In a public place with potentially deadly virus about... Good job mom... Whats worse is when they have a dude with em.. Meaning
1 the mom could go shopping.
2 the dad or bf or what have you could go shopping
3 they could get a sitter
4 they could ask family or a friend to watch the kid and go shopping
For no reason would you ever have a reason to TAKE A FUCKING BABY TO A PUBLIC AREA DURING QUARANTINE
So if your on of the numbnuts doing this stop it.
Although if your this stupid then perhaps societys better off without your flawed genes
You call it good advise i call it common fuckin sense
@@AtomicShrimp I wish this were the case. Our IT department drives this message home repeatedly and consistently, only to be undermined by heads of the organization. I frequently receive unsolicited emails from higher-ups telling me to follow links to various things which could easily be navigated to. These official emails also contain many of the grammatical errors we use to find and ignore scam emails.
Edit: I should add that these aren't test emails crafted by our IT department.
@@colewilder7353 Riiight. I believe Atomic Shrimp would suggest that YOU may know not because of some fundamental Platonic knowledge of this 'thing' but because you've heard of it. Also, your own grammar suggests you could very well be "then stupid" and "perhaps societys" better off without your flawed behaviour. It has nothing to do with genes, however.
Every time he said “why would you click on that link” I could FEEL the exasperated IT guy energy
I used to think no one actually read emails from unknowns. Then, my wife asked what she should do about her windows account being suspended. She read the email on the very machine that was suspended.
The tech equivalent of wondering where your glasses are when you’re wearing them. But sadly it’s more serious than that and not funny.
J J I wear glasses and it’s happened to me... weird hill to die on
There's a telephone scam here in Canada where Microsoft supposedly is calling to advise you, your account has been hacked. Then the "cust.service rep." Talks you through the steps to fix the issue.
Step one: give the rep control of your computer.
Step two: pay $3000 in Google Play cards to have your computer unlocked
People fall for this crap.
I got a call from "the Social Security Administration" saying my account had been cancelled. On the very day my SSA disability check had landed in the bank. Hmmmm ... nothing suspicious THERE.
Why would you marry someone inferior in inteligence?And yes smart people dont read them, my inbox is full of emails I have never tached.
Such a great and entertaining video! Most of the time the email title already blows the covers of those scam emails.
Amosdoll Music! Love your channel!!!!
The best collab, amosdoll+atomic shrimp
What's scary is the mistakes are said to be on purpose to find low IQ marks.
True
5:04 “Estimated delivery in 5 minutes, but may be delayed in rare circumstances.” 5 minutes? Damn, talk about same day delivery.
There's just a Russian guy hiding in a bush near your house holding a package, ready to deliver to you
Do you live at amazon or something, damn
@@celtoucan4956 lol
@@celtoucan4956 i actually laughed for the third time at any youtube comment/reply, thanks to you ;)
and what, pray tell, would be the rare circumstances that would not allow to the package to be delivered in 5 minutes?
5:32 *please, we've hardly met* lol
Hello Dear!
* 5:26
shae G 700th like lol
That's how I almost got $10.500.000 they started like that: Hello dear :D
_"Hello, dear!"_
"Please. We've hardly met."
Your humor always gives me good chuckles. I love your videos. Entertaining and informative!
I cannot stress enough how important it is for someone to say, "Never click a link in an email with only a few exceptions". Even on warning emails that are plausible, or occur around the same time of month like billing notifications, I still _never_ click links in emails. I just go to the websites that I know for certain are from that sender. Even if the email from my bank is legitimate, and they are still telling me that I must do something "urgently" I'll log in to the website that I know is theirs manually. Companies should just stop sending "convenience links" to people in emails because of this exact kind of discussion. If companies don't send links to you, then you know not to click emails that do have links. Simple.
It won't be long, I think, until all reputable companies just stop ever asking their customers to click a link
@@AtomicShrimp caution
okay say that happens in a year or two maybe ten the scammers with stop using link asking you to go to a fake site like instead of yourlegitbank. com they will have a yourlegltbank. com
How many people will spot that has the wrong site? First try?
Also i spaced it because i didn't wanna make a link to anything that'll be bad.
@@colewilder7353 there's nothing a scammer can do to make a person type in the wrong web address for their bank. if they put a link to yourlegltbank in the email, you'd know it's a fake because yourlegitbank doesn't put courtesy links in their emails.
So you'd type your bank's URL in your browser, go there, log in, and find that there's nothing wrong with your account.
What happened if we click on the link?
@@chester4851 sorry - I actually lost this account and had to make a new one because it didn't have 2-factor authentication on it. Let that be a lesson to always set it up.
Anyways, most likely? It'll direct you to a login page that looks like it's legitimate, but will actually send your credentials to the scammer's servers so they can steal whatever info you type into it. But, even more dangerously, some pages can actually steal info from your cookies like your google credentials, for instance. I've heard of that being a thing - not sure if Google found a way to fix this problem or not.
What's also very likely is they'll know that you clicked the link regardless of their strategy. It'll probably put your email address on a mailing list as a "potential target" for future scams. It tells them that 1) there's actually someone who checks that email address, and 2) that the person answering has the potential to not catch scams before clicking a link, which makes them more likely to fall for a scam later than someone who doesn't even click the link and ignores it.
That second part is also why you should never plug one of these links into virustotal, no matter how curious you are. Sure, if you think it's real but you don't know, it can be OK. However, Virustotal still sends a request to the server, which will be logged and it'll flag whatever phone number or email associated with that specific address as "viable" and will lead to more scam email/texts. So, I wouldn't do it if you're pretty sure it's a scam.
Hello dear!
This video Great .
*press To goode*
ô
Fuck why did i click that like button
is yes!
You Have 5 minutes to click or yoùr account will be eliminated .
Thanks,
ô
ôwô
10:17 "space" exclamation mark
Don't trust this guy
↑
[spurious space]
TasveerGraphy
Indeed! It's probably a flat earther, judging by the punctuation 😁
~ Space Comma!
Or he's French. Which, well, see above.
@@qwertyuiop.lkjhgfdsa r/wooosh
The bad grammar i first spotted the capital D in 1 day.
Another note is professional emails tend no to use abbreviations, (We've , You've etc)
Major tip: If you still aren't sure about the email, log onto the website and contact customer support. If that means calling someone, do it. But if you followed the great advice in the video, you should be golden!
also love your channel, really awesome content! Great to listen to when doing gaming or whatever
I had a poney credit card email. So I called the company just to make sure my identity wasn't stolen. luckily it hadn't been.
Don’t Ask me if this video is legit just watch this email
Don't email if if this watch is legit. Ask this video
Ask me if this don't is watch, just email is legit video
@Terry 20 XD best one
Email me if this video is legit. Don’t Ask, just watch.
If me is legit. Just watch email. Don’t ask . Â
Thank you. Now instead of having a 3 day argument with friends and family to convince them of the precarious situation they are in, I can just force them to watch your entertaining and informative videos.
And people dare to suggest _you're_ wasting time?!
I've found that the simple piece of evidence that works in almost every single situation is that you can always just check whatever problem has occurred by going to the site directly. The only exception is if it's something like a confirmation email, but that email was actuated by your own actions, so it's easy to see as safe. I sorely feel that you brushed over the importance of this simple solution since it takes no thinking on the receiver's end.
You're doing the Lort's work, sir! For every boomer or pensioner who watches this video, a phisher loses their wings!
Well, Praise the LORT, and pass the banamas!
@@daveogarf praise greasus
@@GradyBaby13 may he save us from the gravel
If 'the Lord's work' is to warn people against scammers and phishing then why doesn't he get on with it, instead of expecting Atomic Shrimp to do it for him? Or is 'the Lord' just lazy? There's no call to bring religion into this - or into anything.
@@PatrickMcAsey chill out dude, it's a joke with obvious spelling and grammatical mistakes to relate to the video
Really appreciate your work in this mate. When it comes to emails it is a process that requires digesting several things but once you actually know what those things are it is simple to understand. My own interpretation is:
1. Companies will not make things urgent over email, ever. If it truly is urgent you don't get an email, you get it via postage.
2. Anything asking for verification will only be in response to your own actions.
3. Every single thing that requires you to log in will be able to be done by you spending the minute to ask google to send you to the page rather than click a link. If you have even 1% doubt if something is real, do it manually. Companies never ask for login info randomly, the few times they do so will fall under #2 and be in a direct response to your own action
I love the CALM-ness in your VOICE - Love It - (: LIKE SERIOUSLY DON'T CLICK ON LINKS :) Man has a point !!
two scammers disliked this
(Godwin and Jerry)
Yeah buoy
Ha! Indeed! Looks like the "Community of Scammers" list have found the video now too, all 32 of em hit 👎
34 now
Wrong guess. Its actually John Barosa (Warosa)
And they are Indians
53
Your best advice is get out of the email and log in to your account. Don't click on the links in an email even if it "looks legit" is really excellent advice. Thanksyou.
I would argue that this video was one of your most funny videos. Also, at 3:15 (The iTunes email), I would also find the horribly long subject line concerning. I have never seen such a long subject line, ever.
This should be an official PSA that everyone should have to watch at least once in their life!
Brilliant video!
I want to add something we studied in computer science in my IGs, and even before that in middle school:
Companies such as Facebook, Amazon, PayPal and whatnot will NEVER ask for neither any personal information nor payment over email.
Excellent. I retired from a US technical school where I provided IT support to staff and faculty. I wish every one of my users would have watched this video. Cheers.
Thank god english is so hard. Makes it harder for these scammers to make convincing emails.
Maybe writing like this:
"Hello dear!
I am contacting you with regards to *something or other*. Eye got your contact eenfo from da publeec dom-main, so please be rest assured that dis is no scam and u WILL NOT hav any re-grets in dealing with dis transacseeon.
Please get back to me ASAP!
Thanksyou"
Is intentional...
Well you know what they say, English is three languages in a trench coat pretending to be one.
They use shitty grammar on purpose to weed out smarter people.
I've also had scammers from the US with perfect English. But I don't answer to anyone I don't know.. I definitely don't order anything online.
@@Quenlin Exactly!
I've gotten phishing emails pretending to be PayPal. I do not open or reply. I forward said email to PayPal.
Yup - that's not a bad idea - many organisations have dedicated mailboxes set up for reporting spoof emails - and at least some of those organisations actively work to try to shut down the scams
Yeah, but no. They don’t care.
@@alienpoker They’d care since it affects their brand image.
@@alienpoker if it affects their brand image (ie people reporting their computer got affected negatively due to what they saw as a paypal email), they most likely would
I never clicked a phishing e-mail before, but I've been curious as to what happens after that.
Now, that curiosity has never pushed me to do the deed, but you satisfying it in a safe manner in the next video is certainly interesting.
Awaiting more!
You will be taken to a fake website that is dressed up like the actual one. It will ask for various things, and then use that information to do bad things to you.
Your voice is so calming. You remind me of my grandfather. Lost him when I was young but he was just as pleasant and kind as you.
Wow, I knew a lot of these things but I still managed to learn something, namely the words "spurious" and "terse", such great vocab, thanks so much!
I dont even kno why im watching this, but your voice is remarkably soothing to listen to
Actually its kinda grating to me i dont like England accents. But hes funny so
@@colewilder7353 Speaking of grammar and punctuation....
@@eknaap8800 what?
This is really good. Because I know how to spot a scammer, but when I'm trying to teach or advise someone else I've never been able to put it into words.
I watched a very strange 1 minute long advert just to let you have the revenue. I really like your channel! Sorry that I can't afford to support you on Patreon. Please keep up the good work, though!
You're not alone
Hey, It's not watching the full add that earns the creator the big bucks. It's clicking the ads/links. But I didn't tell you that and you should not for any reason do that, because that would be a ToS violation. I don't support that type of stuff *cough* *cough*
KSA Spectre pretty sure it’s the creators that can’t tell people to do that
@@ksaspectre it is a ToS violation to click on ads on youtube? That makes no sense. And if you're talking about intentionally clicking them, i don't think they would know lmao
Please feel free to skip ads if you like. I am not precious about this (although I appreciate your support)
The voice is so calming, I can fall asleep peacefully at any moment.
I had a brilliant individual send me a mail once that told me I had been hacked and in order to reclaim my account, I simply had to open an attached file and follow the instructions in it.
Didn't ask virgin
Did you? Did you open the attached file and swallow the instructions in it?
Wow - that sounds legit.
I’m going to be having dreams that just randomly say “WHY WOULD YOU CLICK THIS BUTTON” multiple times lol thank you for this though
Lisa Simpson to her father Homer: “Real mail checks don’t have exclamation points.”
I keep receiving emails that tell me my TV Licence is about to be revoked if I don't pay a fee immediately. (And they do follow up a day or two later.) Fortunately, I know that it is a scam, but at a quick glance, they could panic someone into clicking. I always stop and think and then access my relevant account via the channels I would normally use rather than their link. I am grateful that you take the time to bait these guys, and make these videos.
This was hilarious, loved it! You must've spent so much time editing showing all the ridiculous spelling/grammer/keyboard mashing! Great job, will be showing this to my grandmother!
hail to the thief > in rainbow
jk
I'm glad people are still making up to date (or at least reasonably up to date) videos on phishing scams. The internet is no safer than it was 20 years ago, and there are still people out there who fall for this kind of stuff. It's always good to have informational content out there, just in case
The anatomy of phishing...
...for rare atomic shrimps
Deserves more likes
anATOMy
lol
How good of you to tip off the scammers with specific examples. If people can't figure out that bad grammar is a clue, they deserve to learn the hard way.
The scammers aren't trying to get the grammar right - they don't want semi-observant people to click through, because those are the people who might realise their mistake in time to correct it. so by trying to increase the level of observation, I am trying to help potential victims - there's no real sense in which I am teaching the scammers to write better scams - they are not trying to do that
My friend sent me a message to go fishing next week. Is this legitimate?
As long as one keeps a 2 mtr. distance... 😁
You're doing an amazing work, man. I've been trying to warn my mom about physhing and Facebook scams for a while and your videos might help me a lot.
She doesn't even know what physhing is, but honestly, I don't think she'll ever fall for it, solely because her inbox is such a mess that every single e-mail that's not from a close relative or friend gets lost in the void and ignored forever.
...Okay, but I might just start signing informal things off with "thanksyou". It's such a perfect mix of "thanks" and "thank you", I can't help but like it.
I once had one of these emails from UPS (supposedly)- it was formatted well, had a big chunk of legal speak at the bottom saying a real address from Ontario (a friend of mine there recognised the street), some copyrights, a thing about unsubscribing, and (being Canada) even had a French translation, though I can't speak for the accuracy. But despite all that, the main body of the email was full of grammatical errors, and both the link provided and the email address didn't seem right. Makes you wonder if they just copied it from a real email?
Anyways, thanksyou for the work you do on these videos :)
I love your content so much. It’s a weird grab bag of your own interests and you have such an honest attitude in your videos. Keep it up
Probably the best advice I've ever gotten about email scams is 'if there's a real problem, you'll be able to find out by logging into your account'. If I got a decent enough looking phising email from PayPal and it said I had since unusual transactions on my account, I could just go to PayPal and look. No need to interact with emails I'm certain are FROM PayPal, so why interact with ones I'm not sure about?
I love how hard he's trying to be patient and put on a kind teacher persona but you can just FEEL his frustration mounting at every "WHY would you click on that??"
You're not wrong. At work, I get the same people coming back to me again and again saying "What about this one? - should I click this one?" and I just can't help wanting to shout "Why don't you just remember the answer from last time you asked?!"
Also, the 'your location' may vary by your ISP. (in the legit messages section). If you think "I'm not in [city]"... check where your ISP is registered.
Major ones like sky and virgin and BT often have local data centres. Smaller ISP's may be less localized.
I got a email for a recall on my oculus quest, so instead of clicking the link in the email I just went onto the official website and turns out it was legitimate! Thanks for teaching me not to click links in emails!
I also would like to agree and say just go straight to your account and log in there, regardless of how good the email looks.
One other thing I notice. Some scammers change the name/user of the senders email to a proper sounding email address. The real email address only becoming visible by clicking a small down arrow next to the name/hovering over the name/clicking on the name (depends on your email host (hotmail/google/yahoo)). Most people would not think to do this and would assume it’s a real email.
if I'm ever put in charge of training employees at some company on how to avoid email scams, I'm using this series as a basis. This is one of the best crash courses in "how to not be a gullible idiot with your account security" I've seen in quite some time. Thanks for doing this!
I should also probably ask, in case that hypothetical situation of me training people becomes real, whether you're okay with your intellectual property being used in this way (either directly or derivatively, and not necessarily limited to this specific set of 3 videos)? I think it's probably safe to assume "yes" since we both have the same goal of making people less... gullible... but better safe than sorry!
Great advice!
I'm sure, in my cautiousness, I have deleted a legitimate email once or twice. Ooops. And guess what!!? My world didnt end. So people just need to chill and err on the side of caution.
Thanks for the vid!!
Cheers!!
Good work pal. This is actually quite an important video to make.
6:13 reminds me of "why do they call it oven when you of in the cold food of out hot eat the food."
This is an excellent description about Scammer emails. I sometimes get these types on my Hotmail account. I try to block the sender address. Sure enough I get more of the same type. The problem is the account shown is different. Blocking the source email address does not work with these. I now simply delete these garbage emails.
Thanks - always useful to be updated on what the latest scams or phishing tricks are. Once I "won" a big sum in a lottery - funny, as I had not bought any lottery tickets.... - I just deleted the whole mail.. Regards from Sweden!
I have won the UK lottery three times without ever buying a ticket, since I live in Florida.
I stumbled upon your page just by watching one of your scammer videos and was also intrigued that you make other videos. I live in the states and was curious what foods you have and saw that you do stuff in a can, must say I love your videos ( all of them) and will continue to watch them
"you can not access your PayPal account"
Well thanks, it's good to know that I do in fact have the ability and option to not access my PayPal account. I was worried that I was legally required to access it regularly.
Many many moons ago, back in probably 1972 I attended the NCOES (Non-commissioned officers education system) at Fort Lewis Washington. It was a VERY intense course requiring us to maintain a bunk and locker in the barracks even though most of us lived off post with our wives and family. The course hours were 4:00 AM till 9:00 PM, and included both office and field exercises. The main thing we were scored on was "ATTENTION TO DETAIL" and we eared both merits and demerits for acting on such petty things as an instructor with an unbuttoned back pocket, or his rank insignia off center on his collar. I passed the course with an average score, and it was enough to add to my promotion score, the following promotion board saw me rise from Corporal to Sergeant. This course has served me well throughout my life, I can credit it for my success through the ranks of the Police Department from recruit to Chief of Police over my career, and was a great background when I served as a criminal investigator with the PD mid-career. Such a skill would serve everyone who now has to contend with long distance crime from India and Africa.
You’re a great educator. Thanks for this 🙏
I loved this video, and I think I'm going to keep this link on my desktop to share with the dullards I have to deal with. Thanks for sharing your experiences. Great video.
You kept an accout confirmation email for your son since 2012 to show it now? That's some mastermind level planning!
Actually, it's pure laziness. I hardly ever delete emails
Great video! The most obvious sign in ALL these phishing emails is that they are NOT ADDRESSED TO YOU. Only to your email address. All these companies know who you are and where you are and all about you. I like these daft order numbers etc. Always a big giveaway!
At 3:02 November 13 2018 is a Tuesday, not a Friday
Can't wait to see the next video. Always wondered what happened when you clicked on it. Another tip is usually if you put you mouse on the button without clicking, you should see the URL. And for phishing emails it usually doesn't show the right domain name
This vid should be sponsored by Grammarly
your voice is so calming even when reading out threatening emails
Let the investigation BEGAN!
I love how you start with just one "Bad Grammar/Syntax" box, then end up with a bunch of arrows coming from it. Also on the subject of grammar, colons sometimes have two spaces after them instead of just one (no big deal), and *'til* is short for until; *till* is only about digging up dirt. And that one IS a big deal. Like you say in the video: it's not about who's good or bad at it, it's about all of us getting better. So to the random person reading this... unless you're talking about gardening, STOP USING TILL!
Till means until. I use it all the time that way, so I looked it up. It has other definitions, but that is primary.
Also the till is the money drawer of a cash register 😏😏😏
I had a fishing email
I reads... "Hi Karl the trout are out, get your Rod meet me at the river"
I’m enjoying this series, I waste scam callers time by responding to them in Miskito which is an obscure native language from Nicaragua which I picked up while living there 10 years ago
I like responding in Greek because it forces scammers to download alphabet plugins on their shitty Nigerian wifi
I recently got an email supposedly from PayPal...
It was addressed to my sister, with her full name, (she has a very unusual name) it had PayPal branding, perfect grammar and was quite formal.
It instructed me to click on a link that would take me to view my transaction history.
It looked very official, even with a section saying 'how do I know this isn't a phishing scam' and a part about donating to charity.
The problem is:
A) neither my sister nor myself has a PayPal account
B) my sister would never sign up to something with my email because she has no idea what my email is, let alone if I have one
C) I never received a confirmation email (you know, like thanks for making an account, verify your email address) when this very 'real' PayPal account was supposedly created
So how did they know my sister's name??? It wasn't a lucky guess because it was her full name. I must stress that her first and last names are incredibly uncommon
perhaps it was pulled from voter records
@@crashdemon you would think so but she's a minor, so she can't vote. Maybe school records were breached?
The problem with worrying about grammar in email text is that most people will only skim the text at best, mainly cause most people get dozens or hundreds of emails every day.
You are 100% right that vigilance is the best cure for scamming/phishing.
5:15 funniest scam email i've ever witnessed
I love your wholesome Approach to educating people
Ive found that a HUGE clue with any of these scams is when they cannot form a proper sentence. HUGE clue its a scam
As I'm watching this video, I get a spam email from a bank I don't use XD The timing was amazing!
“Hello dear!” LOL
Thankfully I haven’t fallen for any of the fake emails I’ve received. That being said I will be sending a link to this video to a couple of friends that I know would fall for them. Thank you
Here I sit, Wishing Netflix would call me "Dear" .. :(
What a relief - often wondered what was going on with the poorly written emails from PayPal and others. Fortunately I ignored them and deleted them but it's good to know I did the right thing.
Great Video if in Doubt always check before you CLICK !!!!
I just love how you read the exact way the email was written 😂 "Hello dear" 🤣 I love the ones that I receive of accounts that I don't have. I also know how to read headers in emails. Today unknowns send job lead links so I never click on any of them.
6:42 Panic does improve the situation if I am in a panic competition.
One thing I’ve seen numerous times is that scammers tend to send me an email as a blind copy, and the primary recipient is some equally obscure address as the sender. This is obviously so that they can send out a single email to a ton of people. No real email from company like this would make you a blind copy
Weird, when i first found this video last year, like about a month later I got this weird "iTunes purchase" e-mail twice in the same month. I don't have an iTunes account either.
Btw, I always check the e-mail addresses first to determine if the e-mails are genuine. Bad grammar/typos just stick out to me like a sore thumb for some reason.
Hopefully in the future this will be taught in schools to help people to not get scammed.
Happens at my school Im british
Phishing email at Atomic level.
Just created a lecture about recognising phishing attacks and I am linking your video for further study!
In the first example, I'd have also tossed in the capital D on "1 Day"
Great advice, but comes with a small problem. A scammer watching this video would now have a few tips on producing more convincing emails by avoiding the mistakes you've pointed out. Loads of those scam emails are as you say, very easy to spot - but they're not all like that, I guess you can't be too careful! Great video sir, keep up the good work.
I don't think the scammers want to fix the grammar issues - they are part of a filter; anyone attentive enough to spot them is not a productive mark for the scam - they want to deal only with people who are going to go through the whole process without a clue
@@AtomicShrimp I hadn't considered that, thanks for the explanation :D
"Hello IT, no it isn't. Bye."
The don't panic advice is great and so very true
I always laugh when I get an email threatening to suspend or delete an account for an app/facility I don't use, like WhatsApp, iTunes, Amazon Prime, even Disney+ just recently (yes the Disney+ scam emails have already begun)! 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
My downfall is doubting if my brain comprehended the sentence properly or the sentence is just nonsensical however, I never click links in emails because I have common sense. Helpful vid.
Update your antivirus / antispyware suite to Common Sense™ v.2019
Very funny, mate, but that does not always help. I am not a person who normally uses antiviruses, but I did a BitDefender scan today and found out there was a coin miner in my System32. Things happen and common sense cannot prevent it.
@@AtaSancaktar what were you doing that your system got a coin miner
No idea. Never downloaded any suspicious files or pirated anything, but somehow I still got it. Maybe some pop-up I closed too late. Nevertheless, common sense doesn't always help.
Common sense is not as common as it used to be
@@lued123 Omfg right?
What do you mean 'This video will not contain entertaining content'? I cracked up multiple times!
Oh boy, I should become a scammer because I can speak proper English--joke.
Grow up
MrBark45 It’s a “joke”, maybe you don’t know English either!
@@MrBark1969 r/whoosh ?
@@5x385
Maybe those scammers should employ us to proof-read emails before sending. We would be a great addition to their job.
Punisher Lee That would imply they’re actually willing to pay for something legitimately, lol.