Scam?

[Tim Lamb]

2 second hand paperbacks (yes I am tight!) ordered from Amazon. (World of books) 2 very suspicious looking mails loaded with an active site purporting to be Royal Mail arrived today each asking me to confirm £1.50 or so delivery charge. Royal Mail tracking has not recognised the tracking number and the mail address seems to be for a property rental company based in London.

If this is a scam, how did they know I had just ordered something from Amazon?

[Joe]

The vast majority of paperbacks ever published are not available new today. Most were never issued as hardbacks.

Don't know if they did. I've had several of these (as text messages rather than emails) and I don't recall that they correlated to anything. But if there was a leak, I'd have said it was more likely from WoB than Amazon.

A quick Google suggests that the only link between Royal Mail and Amazon is that they are both likely to be named in scam delivery messages.

[Theo]

World of Books is a scam. They describe many of their books as 'very good' even when they aren't (eg damage, annotations inside), and rely on customers being too lazy to complain. I've stopped buying from them.

Because people order things from Amazon all the time, and eventually the scammer strikes lucky?

An Amazon seller doesn't get your email address, so if the mails aren't coming from Amazon's server then it's just regular phishing/etc.

(when you confirm something as posted on the seller dashboard, Amazon ask for the tracking number. So any tracking updates are from Amazon, without the courier getting your email address)

Theo

[Tim Lamb]

Hmm. I only want to read them.

So someone has my mail address. Not a comforting thought:-(

[Tim Lamb]

In message [e-mail]>, Joe [e-mail] writes

I should be able to post the message header if anyone is interested. Biggest concern is how they got my mail address!

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[Rob Morley]

Where's the problem?

[Jeff Layman]

Are you on the "open" electoral register? Or are you talking about an email address (assumed different from the one with which you post here)?

[Chris J Dixon]

Well, a moment with Google and so have I, if you are in Wheathampstead.

Chris

[Tim Lamb]

No and yes:-) Demon died years ago:-(

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[Tim Lamb]

In message <20221015005257.243caca8@Mars>, Rob Morley [e-mail] writes

My main route for communication. I don't use any of the current offerings other than land line, Mobile + SMS

Just consider how many contacts you have to notify if it is changed:-(

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[Tim Lamb]

1st. prize!

[Chris Green]

Half the world has one of my E-Mail addresses (I basically have two), so what?

[Tim Lamb]

Hmm. I suppose it comes down to which half. The half you have given it to or the half who might make detrimental financial use.

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[Brian Gaff]

I've just had a similar weird one from supposedly, Asda rewards I've never dealt with them, and really all they show me is that they know my email name and address. I carefully went and looked at the web site in the email and it has the right name and looks genuine, however on clicking any link on that page the clicking, at least 20 click through before it gets to a page is frightening. NOw looked afterwards for any malwre, and found nothing but replaced the registry from that morning just in case. Obviously I sent them no personal data, but to go to such trouble to get data, seems rather amazing to me or is there some hidden hacking of asdas site going on. Brian

[Brian Gaff]

Are you on the voters list? Its by combining several bits of info that they can de annonamise their data. I'm sure huge routines are running doing just this for everyone as we speak. Brian

[Brian Gaff]

That depends of course whether you are still involved with marfordfarm Since it appears to be something to do with fishing. no not phishing, though it could be. Brian

[Tim Lamb]

In message <tiduc9$2l7rn$ [e-mail], Brian Gaff [e-mail] writes

Indeed. I still own the land and the fishery. That mail address was generated long before secrecy became useful.

[Brian]

I’ve used World of Books to buy books out of print etc.

They’ve never needed me to pay a charge ON delivery.

Timing could just be a coincidence.

[Theo]

Go here, and type in your email:

It'll tell you if it's been leaked in any data breaches, and in which case where it came from and what other details might have been leaked.

You can also register an email and it'll mail you later if it shows up in a new breach.

Theo

[Martin Brown]

They didn't. You get scams of this sort from time to time. Mine mostly arrive to the wrong email address which makes sorting the wheat from the chaff much easier.

The ones that worry me the most are fake courier could not deliver scams which look at first glance identical to real notifications. One day I will be in a hurry expecting something from that courier and fall for it.

ISTR you may have posted with your new email address in the clear at some point. Googling your own email address or a key identifying part of it may allow you to see where it exists online.

I have generally found WoB and Abe reliable for obtaining rare books that are cheaper or actually available in the USA. The last one I was looking for Abe showed that Blackwells had a new copy lurking in a cellar somewhere - and they really did so I got it from them instead.