Computers & Electronics

Did I receive a real email or spam?

  • Last Updated:
  • Apr 8th, 2011 2:40 am
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Sr. Member
Nov 8, 2010
963 posts
214 upvotes

Did I receive a real email or spam?

I just received an email which appears to be from HSBC UK.


It says the standard things you would expect in a spam email:
  • Someone with my last name just died. I have a Scottish last name so you wouldn't think it was too uncommon in the UK.
  • That person left $18 million US dollars and has no heirs. (I'm not sure why they wouldn't use pounds instead).
  • Do I believe I am related to this person? They don't actually say who the person is though.

The odd thing is that there is no contact information in the email body. The email is from an hsbc.co.uk address and the reply-to address is the same. Taking a look at the headers I see nothing unusual.


If this is spam, I don't have a clue how it works. Have they actually hacked that particular email address?



If it isn't spam, does HSBC just randomly email anyone that has the same last name? Is this really the way they do business?

They appear to have gotten my address from the domain I own. I own LASTNAME.net and the email they used is one of the addresses in the WHOIS entry.
15 replies
Deal Addict
Jan 13, 2007
4831 posts
361 upvotes
Post the raw message here, headers and all, maybe we can see something (remove your personal stuff)
Sr. Member
Nov 8, 2010
963 posts
214 upvotes
It would appear to be spam. The email I got is similar to the email found here.


The only difference is that unlike the linked email, the email I got had both the from and reply to address as the same. They were both: xxxxxxxx@hsbc.co.uk

From what I can tell though, HSBC uses @hsbc.com as their email address, no matter where in the world a person is located.



But that being said, the hsbc.co.uk domain is a valid domain owned by HSBC and used for the UK website, just not their UK email addresses. So I still don't understand where that email address is going to lead.

Is there someone in the HSBC UK IT department who is in on this scam and is going to intercept that email if I reply? Or is it possible to stick something in the headers so that it bounces to another address when hsbc.co.uk rejects the email?
Sr. Member
Apr 12, 2003
879 posts
12 upvotes
"Mark as spam" is your option...
Got Rice?
Deal Addict
Dec 17, 2001
2497 posts
388 upvotes
Ajax
I am assuming when people inherit 18 million, they do more than send an email out to notify.

Just a hunch!!!! :lol:
Deal Expert
Feb 24, 2007
15169 posts
2743 upvotes
sharing is caring and facebook needs more members. :lol:
Newbie
User avatar
Sep 10, 2009
58 posts
12 upvotes
Markham, ON
Spam dude. Don't waste your time.. or money.
Deal Addict
User avatar
Dec 25, 2010
1319 posts
76 upvotes
Mississauga
this may be related to the recent Best Buy break. Last night on the news they mentioned a number of companies that had their mail lists broken into and HSBC was one of them. All these companies subcontract their emal service to one company that had a breach.
Deal Addict
User avatar
Mar 19, 2006
1472 posts
71 upvotes
Markham/GTA
A bank would never conduct business like this. Spam. And it's not like you're the only person with your last name, I would think.
Deal Addict
Jan 13, 2007
4831 posts
361 upvotes
Lulz wrote: Guys, he is not asking if it's spam.
OP is curious how come the reply email leads to official HSBC instead of like hsbc_banking@hotmail.com

Exactly. And the answer may help everybody
Newbie
Aug 27, 2010
21 posts
With the email open, right click (if using windows) in the middle of the window and select "view source", or something similar as it is browser dependant.

Search for hsbc.co.uk in the HTML code and see if it does a referral or redirect within.

99.9997% of these are spam, phishers/viruses!
Banned
User avatar
May 3, 2009
6148 posts
781 upvotes
My last name is Gates and the Swiss Bank just emailed me that Bill Gates is about to die and I as the only other Gates in the world (never mind the other gates of defense) would probably be the heir. They said to give them $1,500 to process the $60 Billion that I would have inherited.

Could you tell me if this is this a spam guys??

Regards,

Gates.
Deal Expert
Aug 2, 2004
38384 posts
12008 upvotes
East Gwillimbury
Kuurgen wrote: I am assuming when people inherit 18 million, they do more than send an email out to notify.

Just a hunch!!!! :lol:

If I had that much money to give someone, I would try harder than an email.

BANKS DO NOT EMAIL THEIR CUSTOMERS

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