Scammers Targeting Bonsai Community

[ZombieNick]

Starting a thread to make people aware of what looks like a targeted scam on bonsai clubs. I received the below email today, the 2nd of this type in the last couple months. The troubling thing is that the names and implied positions are accurate, which means they are scraping this information from somewhere (not sure where yet, as I don't know where my email would be published).



Please pass this on to your club members, especially if you have older board members that may be susceptible to this type of scam.

 

[Desert O'Piñon]

Greedy bullies!

 

[Bonsai Nut]

Please pass this on to your club members, especially if you have older board members that may be susceptible to this type of scam.

I appreciate the heads-up, while at the same time wondering how in the world anyone would respond to an email like this? There is literally no content except - "hey, send us your bank account info"

 

[ZombieNick]

Yea, not the most sophisticated, we don't even have "operating expenses," but I've seen people fall for worse.

 

[Ruddigger]

This has been happening to California clubs the last couple years. Officers in my club have received several of these. I’m pretty sure they’re getting the information from the GSBF website. As soon as I became President of my club they switched to phishing with my name instead of the last President’s.

 

[Wulfskaar]

I appreciate the heads-up, while at the same time wondering how in the world anyone would respond to an email like this? There is literally no content except - "hey, send us your bank account info"

We have gotten these where I work, but they have a trick... Their email appears to be from the CEO or CFO, but if you hover your mouse over it, it shows the actual email address. Luckily, we were smart enough to check with the actual people to ask why they needed $500 gift cards.

 

[ZombieNick]

We have gotten these where I work, but they have a trick... Their email appears to be from the CEO or CFO, but if you hover your mouse over it, it shows the actual email address. Luckily, we were smart enough to check with the actual people to ask why they needed $500 gift cards.

Worked IT for a long time, I've seen it all. Once saw a guy wire the "CEO" $50k because he received a "personal request" from a non company email.

This has been happening to California clubs the last couple years. Officers in my club have received several of these. I’m pretty sure they’re getting the information from the GSBF website. As soon as I became President of my club they switched to phishing with my name instead of the last President’s.

I don't see us listed on GSBF? Maybe they took down the page...

 

[Ruddigger]

Worked IT for a long time, I've seen it all. Once saw a guy wire the "CEO" $50k because he received a "personal request" from a non company email.


I don't see us listed on GSBF? Maybe they took down the page...

It’s there. I just checked. Their website is just terrible to navigate.

 

[Carol 83]

We have gotten these where I work, but they have a trick... Their email appears to be from the CEO or CFO, but if you hover your mouse over it, it shows the actual email address. Luckily, we were smart enough to check with the actual people to ask why they needed $500 gift cards.

Everybody at my company had to take a phishing webinar and that was one of the things it taught us. They send out random phishing emails to try and trick us up. If we click on it, we have to take more classes. Makes me skeptical of every email I receive.

 

[Michigan Tree Murderer]

Everybody at my company had to take a phishing webinar and that was one of the things it taught us. They send out random phishing emails to try and trick us up. If we click on it, we have to take more classes. Makes me skeptical of every email I receive.

Same. I work in IT and we have monthly security classes on all the new scams. AI is going to make it tough to tell in a few years.

 

[ZombieNick]

Thought I'd have some fun with him and try to get more information. I got his Venmo:


I'm sending him a payment request for that amount instead

 

[ZombieNick]

Boo it was fake. Probably so they can ask for mine. Alright I'm done here.

 

[Ruddigger]

Nice try.

 

[Cajunrider]

I appreciate the heads-up, while at the same time wondering how in the world anyone would respond to an email like this? There is literally no content except - "hey, send us your bank account info"

I used to wonder myself but wonder no more. Aging will affect our ability to reason. In his younger years my father was an astute analyst. Now we have to put his computer in a sandbox.
As a Nigerian prince once said: "It costs me <$1 to send out 10,000 emails. All it takes is one bite, even by false teeth."

 

[Brain Treez]

I used to wonder myself but wonder no more. Aging will affect our ability to reason. In his younger years my father was an astute analyst. Now we have to put his computer in a sandbox.
As a Nigerian prince once said: "It costs me <$1 to send out 10,000 emails. All it takes is one bite, even by false teeth."

Indeed. For a lot of these scammers it's not worth the effort to use good grammar, spelling, and logic since anyone fool enough to fall for the scam isn't likely to catch or mind the mistakes/wonkiness of the phishing email.

 

[vp999]

My best friend's mom got scammed out of $75k on Facebook a couple years ago, it was in investment pyramid scam and she didn't tell her kids til later. She wasn't rich or anything and the money was her life's saving.