Scam of the week: All it takes is one true detail and one good guess

A couple days ago, my mom forwarded an email and asked if it was spam.

The email in question was from “Daniel Nelms.” That’s me!

The subject line read “Arrangement for Reunion / Gathering June 2026 Daniel Nelms.” I’m flying to see my mom tomorrow and the whole family is coming. So this checks out.

The body of the email said “I just thought those photographs might be of interest to you,” which is plausible as we share photos all the time.

The answer to her question, of course, was “yes” this is spam. The link and from address were red flags. My mom noticed and was suspicious… but clicked anyway. Luckily, the webpage had been taken down by the time she got there.

To disarm her, the spammer just needed one true detail (she knows me) and one good guess (that we’re getting together this month for some kind of reunion or gathering).

It’s very easy for scammers to get this information. There are over 3,000 data breaches a year, so most emails in use are on a list somewhere. Data brokers and fraudsters buy and sell your information. Public records and social media enrich it with true details like your name, address, phone number, and who you know.

That’s all it takes to build a believable story. And they can try hundreds of narratives until one works. And, once one works, scammers log the conversion so they can run the same playbook on you again.

It’s impossible to catch 100% of these. And all it takes is one to disrupt your life.

What you can do to stay safe

Be careful with vague emails. A reunion, a package, a photo, an invitation… Scammers guess at the things you care about, and sometimes they guess right. If it’s vague, check twice before you open it.

The sender’s address is harder to fake than the name. A sender can put anything they want in the name field. The email address is a more reliable signal (though not foolproof as a scammer could have compromised my account, or registered one that’s a single character off.)

When something feels off, don’t click. Verify it another way first. My mom forwarded the email to me to check if it was spam. That’s a good idea, just check before clicking next time!

Use software to help you. We’re all bombarded with scam attempts, and the stakes are too high to rely on intuition alone. Our app flags scams like this proactively, saving you the time and risk of being your own scam filter. Our mobile app is coming out next week – I’ll help my parents get set up on the reunion trip!