Cybersecurity company Proofpoint discovered a scam in which people are receiving emails offering a free piano which is available often purportedly due to a death in the family.  The scam has largely targeted students and professors at colleges and universities. Often in the email, the scammer poses a someone from the same college or university as that of the targeted victim.  According to Proofpoint they have identified about 125,000 of these emails sent since the beginning of the year.  In order to receive the free piano, all the targeted victim has to do is contact the moving company that presently has the piano to arrange for delivery.  Delivery options in some of the emails have ranged from two day delivery for $915 to ten day delivery for $595.  However, in order to have the delivery made, the targeted scam victim is required to pay the moving company in full for the cost of delivery.

A big indication that this is a scam is that the moving company asks for payment by Zelle or cryptocurrencies.  No legitimate business asks for payment by Zelle or cryptocurrencies, but scammers often do because of the anonymity for these types of payments and the difficulty in tracing or reversing payments made in this manner.

Of course, anyone paying the moving company for the piano never receives a piano and loses whatever money the targeted victim pays.  Proofpoint has found that many of these scam phishing emails originate in Nigeria.

TIPS

B.S.  Be Skeptical.  People may trust emails such as this due to affinity fraud where we tend to trust people with whom we share some kind of connection and getting an email such as this that appears to come from someone at your college or university may cause the person receiving the email to trust it to be legitimate.  Particularly if the offer appears to be about getting something for nothing, you should investigate the name of the person offering the free piano as well as confirm that the moving company is legitimate as well.  The scammers use the names of legitimate moving companies, but when you contact them or go to their website, you are taken to a phony website or phone number.

Requiring payment by Zelle or cryptocurrencies is another indication that this is a scam.

Finally, it should be noted that while this scam is largely originating in Nigeria, the use of AI makes the emails very believable even where the person creating the email may not have American English as his primary language.

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