Scam e-mail received today, 26th December 2023.

[#1]

Hi all.

This scam e-mail turned up in my inbox today (note that this isn't the first one like this I've received this month).  Posting here as the Plusnet offices are closed for the holiday.
Please be aware if the sender's e-mail address is not from the Plusnet e-mail domain (see screenshot below), then it ain't from Plusnet.  In this example, the sender is using a Hotmail account.  In addition there are these random characters in square brackets round the Plusnet name.

I'll be on the phone to Plusnet tomorrow to let them know there is yet another scam campaign.

If you have received the same, or similar e-mails like this.  Check the sender's e-mail address in the first instance, and report it to Plusnet as soon as possible.  They will advise you to forward it on to them, and delete the original you've been sent.

Keep your eyes peeled and stay safe.  Happy New Year!

[#2 · Accepted solution]

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@DirtyDean68 wrote:

I'll be on the phone to Plusnet tomorrow to let them know there is yet another scam campaign.

I believe that you may be able to report it by sending an email with a screenshot attachment such as this to abuse@plus.net without it being rejected as spam.

[#3]

I'll do that now. Thanks Baldrick1.👍

[#4]

For the 3rd time in a week I'm getting phishing emails purporting to be from Plusnet. Possibly random & hit lucky that I'm a Plusnet customer , but the amount - all from different addresses seems a bit of a coincidence.

The latest ones are titled:
"Your last reminder Ref: 79659830-10:36:53" , 

 "It's essential to keep your information updated | Time's Running Out! Update Your Details by 2023" &

"Outdated Personal Information in Accounts: Safeguarding Privacy"

in case it helps anyone else to avoid them.

I've forwarded them all to Plusnet at abuse@plus.net, but I don't expect a response (I've never got one  before - don't even get a read receipt!).

Maybe if everyone reported these when they get them, the volume would annoy Plusnet into doing something.

Also reported to National Cyber Security Centre at report@phishing.gov.uk (not Action Fraud as advised on the Plusnet blogs, as they are only for if you've actually been scammed)

[#5]

Also received three, all sent to "abuse". You question "has there been a data breach?" I agree that some response from Plusnet is called for, particularly as I have yet to discover a non-Plusnet customer who has received one of these.

[#6]

There could indeed have been data breach … from any of the many places we all use our email addresses with. Look here - https://haveibeenpwned.com/ - put your email address into here and see whose data leaks it appears in.

As for targeted messaging @***.plus.com is a bit of a give away of being a Plusnet user.

[#7]

Thanks for posting this, I’ve spent most of the morning trying to find out how/where to report these emails,  as like you have been receiving several of these since November, all from different hotmail addresses. Thanks to this post I’ve reported to abuse@plus.net and report@phishing.gov.uk. 

[#8]

I'll add my voice to the, "Me too!", chorus, quite a few of these phishing scams have turned up in recent days but in only one of my mailboxes.  I will continue to report them.

[#9]

I have also received more than one of these scamming emails in recent days.

Bearing in mind the eventual likely shut down of the Plusnet email platforms that many of us old time Plusnet customers are still using and so are clearly worried about this happening (the shutdown of our Plusnet email addresses) the subject and content is one bound to frighten some recipients in to reacting by clicking the link without thinking further about the dangers of doing so.

However it was obvious to me that it was a scam because the email sender was anthonywaro@hotmail.com and the actual website pointed to by the link is <Removed>

Ideally Plusnet will send out a warning email to all of its customers about this scam email warning them not to respond to it by clicking on the link in the email.

Older people with some dementia but still living on their own are unfortunately most at risk of falling for this kind of scam.

Moderator's note:
Address removed from a public forum (to an area that staff can see).

[#10]

Today, 9th January 2024 I got a popup ad on my android smartphone purporting to be from Plusnet, it was a ten question challenge and I got the ten answers within the time limit. The prize is a galaxy phone, guess what you have to pay four quid postage to get it. I realized it as 100 percent scam right then. Hope plusnet is reading this, looks like scams are going through the roof right now.

[#11]

@PurpleFeather Out of curiosity, why did you click on an obvious scam?

[#12]

@PurpleFeather My bet is that the perpetrators of this scam will actually be charging a lot more than £4 to your card in the end either totally illegally or as part of an expensive mobile phone contract of say 36 months duration at say £39 per month or whatever it turns out to be that you are consenting to by providing your card details and agreeing to the delivery of the phone to your home.

[#13]

I'm still getting this sort of spam!  It's so blatantly obvious it is spam I'm amazed Plusnet seem unable to block it.

@Baldrick1 any suggestions as to how I can get this escalated?

[#14]

@stuck 

What you have to realise and accept is that these emails are not coming from Plusnet, the source could be anywhere in the world. You can report it to Plusnet but there's absolutely nothing that they can do to stop them coming to your specific email address.

Have you ever checked to see if your email address has been leaked onto the Dark Web for scammers to use? To check enter your email address here https://haveibeenpwned.com/.

I know it's an absolute pain having to contact all your contacts but if it's been leaked then one way around this is to change your email address. Make sure that in your email account settings that  'catch all' is set to Off. The only other option is to be patient and eventually it should go away.