I have now received emails from two different friends/family members that start out with, Need to talk to you, or need your help.  The initial email looks very much like something they would send.  The 1st part of the email address is that person's actual email - but the last part (gmail, aol) is different.  So if you just glanced at the email it looks like it is from them.  One of them I replied to, asking what did he need, and then that's when they asked me to purchase some amazon gift cards and they'd reimburse me.   Um, no.  The president of our local quilt guild would never ask me to do that.  And the email from my cousin asking me to text them because he urgently needed my help had the wrong phone number. But if I didn't already have his phone number I wouldn't have been able to tell.

Gone are the days where you could just look at the email address and easily tell it was phishing, and gone are the days of misspelled words & bad grammar.  These even knew something about the person they were impersonating (our guild president).  Just thought I'd share my recent personal experience. creeps! 

It's a very scary world.  Someone had hacked DH's email and used it to contact our investment banker to  transfer funds to a different account.  Hacker haad read enough of DH's emails to know that he dealt in farm equipment and who our investment guy was.  Investmnt guy saw the red flags and called us.  Somehow, DH figured out it was some guy in Nigeria.  Sad that we have to be so suspicious and cautious.

Thank you.  I've been getting "Invoices" from places I don't do business with or have no current order.

Why can't people just be honest.... dang anyway.

There are some very clever scammers out there.  And as you have said, we have to question and check everything that comes electronically now a days.  So sad.