This email, which claims to be from the ‘Gmail Team’, supposedly notifies you that you have undeliverable messages. The email, which features the familiar Google logo, includes a “more information” link and “View messages” button that supposedly allow you to access the alleged ‘undeliverable messages’.
Message is Not from Google — Opens Spam Website
However, the email is certainly not from Google and the claim that you can click to view undeliverable messages is a lie. The links in the message open a version of the notorious Canadian Pharmacy website that tries to sell you many types of medication without the need of a doctor’s prescription.
The spammers know that at least a few of the people thus duped into visiting the spam site will linger and purchase one or more of its dodgy products.
People who buy on the site may or may not actually get the products they ordered. But, even if they do get the products, they could be significantly jeopardising their health and wellbeing by taking them. The products they purchase may not be what they claim to be. Furthermore, given that users don’t need a prescription to buy it, they might be inadvertently risking their health by taking medicine that is unsuitable for them. It might also interfere with other medication users are taking with serious repercussions.
Don’t Trust These Spammers with Your Credit Card
It is very risky to trust these spammers with your credit card details. If they are unscrupulous enough to market their products via deliberately deceptive spam messages then they may have no qualms about stealing credit card information and using it to conduct fraudulent transactions. Often, these spam websites do not even use secure payment forms.
This version is just one variant in an ongoing spam attack that has used the names of several high-profile online companies, including Skype, Facebook, Linked-In and Twitter.
If one of these spam messages hits your inbox, do not click on any links that it contains.
An example of the spam email:
Importance Notice
After considerable thought and with an ache in my heart, I have decided that the time has come to close down the Hoax-Slayer website.These days, the site does not generate enough revenue to cover expenses, and I do not have the financial resources to sustain it going forward.
Moreover, I now work long hours in a full-time and physically taxing job, so maintaining and managing the website and publishing new material has become difficult for me.
And finally, after 18 years of writing about scams and hoaxes, I feel that it is time for me to take my fingers off the keyboard and focus on other projects and pastimes.
When I first started Hoax-Slayer, I never dreamed that I would still be working on the project all these years later or that it would become such an important part of my life. It's been a fantastic and engaging experience and one that I will always treasure.
I hope that my work over the years has helped to make the Internet a little safer and thwarted the activities of at least a few scammers and malicious pranksters.
A Big Thank You
I would also like to thank all of those wonderful people who have supported the project by sharing information from the site, contributing examples of scams and hoaxes, offering suggestions, donating funds, or helping behind the scenes.I would especially like to thank David White for his tireless contribution to the Hoax-Slayer Facebook Page over many years. David's support has been invaluable, and I can not thank him enough.
Closing Date
Hoax-Slayer will still be around for a few weeks while I wind things down. The site will go offline on May 31, 2021. While I will not be publishing any new posts, you can still access existing material on the site until the date of closure.Thank you, one and all!
Brett Christensen,
Hoax-Slayer
