I have good news for you.

By Gina
@Gina145 (3949)
Johannesburg, South Africa
August 26, 2017 6:57am CST
"I have good news for you." That's the subject of an email I just received. The body reads: "I have an important information for you. Get back to me immediately for more details." There's something very phishy about this one, yet my email program didn't pick it up as a possible scam. And yet may perfectly legitimate emails get marked as suspect all the time. I guess humans still know better!
6 people like this
7 responses
weevee
@weevee18 (2067)
• Philippines
26 Aug 17
Never respond to these types of messages. They should be in spam.
1 person likes this
Gina
@Gina145 (3949)
• Johannesburg, South Africa
26 Aug 17
@weevee18 They should be, but a lot seem to get past my spam filter.
1 person likes this
Gina
@Gina145 (3949)
• Johannesburg, South Africa
28 Aug 17
@weevee18 I'm not sure. I was forced to change email programs recently because Windows Live Mail isn't being supported anymore and it started giving me problems. I'm now using the free version of Thunderbird and I haven't had time to learn how everything works. I suspect I'd need the paid version to get the control I want.
1 person likes this
weevee
@weevee18 (2067)
• Philippines
26 Aug 17
@Gina145 oh dear. Not sure if it's possible but is there a way you could change the settings on spam?
1 person likes this
Anna
@LadyDuck (457918)
• Switzerland
26 Aug 17
So true, there is still a lot to do in order that the Artificial Intelligence pick up things as humans do.
1 person likes this
Gina
@Gina145 (3949)
• Johannesburg, South Africa
26 Aug 17
@LadyDuck I hope artificial intelligence never reaches that level. Machines are already taking over too many jobs as it is.
1 person likes this
Gina
@Gina145 (3949)
• Johannesburg, South Africa
28 Aug 17
@LadyDuck That definitely sounds scary. I guess it's too late to stop that kind of progress now and I hate to think what the future holds.
1 person likes this
Anna
@LadyDuck (457918)
• Switzerland
27 Aug 17
@Gina145 I have seen a scary video. There was a robot in Japan, programmed to make some moves to welcome guests in a store. A kid started to climb a shelf and it was falling down. The robot has rushed to grab the kid before he was hurt... the robot WAS NOT programmed to do this. I was more than scared.
1 person likes this
Jennifer
@LovingMyBabies (85127)
• Valdosta, Georgia
26 Aug 17
I wouldn't take the chance on that one, it does sound like a scam.
1 person likes this
Gina
@Gina145 (3949)
• Johannesburg, South Africa
26 Aug 17
@LovingMyBabies Definitely, and the writer didn't even make any effort to make this one sound interesting.
Silvermist
@silvermist (19702)
• India
26 Aug 17
Well you are right.It is safe not to respond to such emails.
1 person likes this
Silvermist
@silvermist (19702)
• India
27 Aug 17
@Gina145 Yes,there are many who falls for that.
1 person likes this
Gina
@Gina145 (3949)
• Johannesburg, South Africa
26 Aug 17
@silvermist I wish everybody realized that.
1 person likes this
AbbyGreenhill
@AbbyGreenhill (45496)
• United States
26 Aug 17
I think many of us are programmed to be leery of most e-mails...better safe than sorry.
1 person likes this
Gina
@Gina145 (3949)
• Johannesburg, South Africa
26 Aug 17
@AbbyGreenhill Many of us are, but obviously some people fall for them or the senders would quit sending them out.
AbbyGreenhill
@AbbyGreenhill (45496)
• United States
26 Aug 17
@Gina145 that is why I said many are leery.
1 person likes this
Thelma
@thelme55 (76476)
• Germany
26 Aug 17
That sounds fishy indeed. I don't open an unknown email.
1 person likes this
Gina
@Gina145 (3949)
• Johannesburg, South Africa
26 Aug 17
@thelme55 I look at the emails but don't open any attachments. This one didn't have any though, just an email address to which they expected me to respond so that I could get the "more details" the message refers to.
1 person likes this
Sabrina Traversa
@sabtraversa (12914)
• Italy
26 Aug 17
Did a person with your same last name die? Or did you win the lottery? I would get back to them just to find out how creative they are.
1 person likes this
Gina
@Gina145 (3949)
• Johannesburg, South Africa
26 Aug 17
@sabtraversa It would be interesting but I'm not prepared to risk responding. It could get dangerous.
1 person likes this