Some scams are run on a daily basis, and are so intricately made, they can trick even the smartest of us. The scams we’re talking about come in the form of emails where the sender shows up in your email box as purportedly coming from an entity you recognize, such as the Social Security Administration, Best Buy, PayPal, and the like. The emails usually look very real, even having the proper logo, and disclaimers on the bottom. They often will tell you that you overpaid for something or that you received some letter telling you how much money you would be receiving, i.e., a social security benefit was incorrect, and they want to fix it.
There will then be either a phone number to call, a click-through link, or even an attachment of the ‘correct’ document. Before you call the number on that email, click through, or open the PDF, go up to the sender line of your email where you see the name that appears legitimate, and click on that. You will then see the sender\’s ‘real’ email address, which has absolutely nothing to do with who you thought had sent you the email.
Immediately delete the email and congratulate yourself for catching it in time. Know also that if you inadvertently delete a legitimate email, the legitimate sender will reach out to you again, and if you end up with a charge on your credit card statement for a legitimate renewal of some random subscription, you can ask for assistance from your credit card company to safely reach out to the vendor to explain what happened, contest the charge and ask that it be removed.