There is a certain phrase that should now get your Spidey sense tingling.
This three-word message is one that scammers rely on and could make you high-risk to fall for a scam text: “Would you kindly.”
It may seem like a friendly or harmless phrase, but your guard should go up immediately. Even the single word “kindly” should read as a red flag.
“The word ‘kindly’ is simply something we don’t use in our common vernacular in the US,” Tim Bajarin, a 40-year veteran technology analyst, told Readers Digest in an interview published Saturday.
“You’ll often hear it used in countries with British influence, perhaps once a colonial country, where English isn’t their mother tongue [such as Nigeria, India and Pakistan].”
Because the word “kindly” is most likely used by a foreign national, it’s possible that the message is being sent by someone in an overseas “boiler room” out to scam you.
“If you see this word or phrase, it’s a red flag, similar to poor spelling or grammar,” added Bajarin, who is also the chairman of the San Jose, Calif.–based market research company Creative Strategies.
Doug Shadel, founder of Fraud Prevention Strategies and a former fraud investigator and special assistant to the Washington state Attorney General’s office, also warned people to be on the lookout for more than just a particular word, phrase or spelling mistakes.
“Really, any communication that you get that’s unsolicited — whether it’s a text or robocall, social media message or email — should make you highly suspicious,” he told Reader’s Digest.
“If you didn’t initiate this correspondence, chances are it’s a scam.”
Shadel, who also directed AARP’s Fraud Watch Network for 30 years, explained that these days, scammers know consumers are catching on faster than ever before.
As for what this will cause them to do? Shift tactics.
Now, a new opening message is still posed in a seemingly innocent way, something to the effect of, “Did I miss you today?” “Hi, how are you?” or “I’ll be late for the meeting.”
“When you write back to ask who it is or tell them they’ve got the wrong person, they will try to defraud you in some manner,” Shadel added.
The FTC reports that these conversation starters gain consumers’ trust and friendship. Once the scammer feels they’ve done that, they will ask you to invest in cryptocurrency or say they need help and ask you to send them gift cards, but it’s all just part of the swindle.
The rule of thumb is this: Delete the text or emails that are unsolicited and report them as junk.
“If it’s an ‘imposter’ message, like someone claiming to be from, say, Bank of America or the IRS, never click on the link or attachment,” warned Shadel.
“If you’re not sure if it’s [legit], you should independently log into that account with your own login and password — not what was sent to you — to see if the institution truly was trying to contact you.”
Another option is to call the organization on their published phone number from their website to verify the message was legitimate.
Shadel noted it’s important to report these fraudulent emails or texts for one reason.
“Law enforcement needs to know the extent of the issue, to be able to devote more resources to stopping scammers.”
