You’ve probably seen it before: an email or posted ad claiming to have a valuable item to give away. The story sounds reasonable or even sympathetic: the sender is moving, or downsizing their late parents’ estate, or just needs the item gone. The most common item we see in these scams is a baby grand piano, but we have also seen power tools and lab equipment on offer. If you haven’t seen this scam yet there is a good chance you will, scammers love to pull this one out close to the holidays.
Here’s how this scam works: the “owner” claims that they’re out of town and will ship the item for free if you cover a small delivery fee. You pay them the fee… and the item never shows up. There is no courier, the item was fake. The scammer takes the delivery fee you paid and disappears.
How to spot these scams
🚩 Any ad that asks for up-front payment to receive something for free or low cost
🚩 They ask you to move to a personal email, Whatsapp, Signal, or other private messaging app to continue the transaction
🚩 They demand payment through bank transfer, apps like CashApp or Zelle, or sketchy courier sites that you’ve never heard of
🚩 There’s no local pickup option. If they won’t meet in person, it’s not real
If it sounds too good to be true, it is.
What to do instead
If you get one of these emails, report it to phishreport@ufv.ca and move on. Don’t reply.
Example
Here’s an example of this scam that was really received here at UFV. See if you can spot all the signs, and check out the list below to see if you caught them all.
Here’s all the signs of a scam we could spot here:
- The first contact safety tip and external sender warning are indicators that this email did not come from UFV
- A gmail address sent this, but it is signed to impersonate a UFV employee
- They ask you to contact them from your personal email, so that they can isolate you to continue this scam outside of UFV channels
- The same story hook we described earlier, even using sympathy by describing it as her late father’s piano
Did we miss any? Let us know! Or, if you have other questions or concerns, reach out to us by emailing cybersecurity@ufv.ca.
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