Odd emails with (supposed) links to photos, purporting to come from relatives.

I had one of these today. Instantly deleted.

I had an awful one recently

Someone is very poorly and it said something like "the have passed away" with a video link from someone who also knows them

It really threw me

Why are people willing to put so much time amd effort into conning people out of money when thy could just get a real job and have a steady income

Yes it’s a common scan. We have all had this type of email from my husband’s email address but only since he died

Luckygirl3, I'm sorry this has happened to you. From what you say, I assume that your address book data was taken in a data breach online, not from your device.

You could increase your safety on line by opening a second email acount (with a different provider) to use and set up as a recovery account. It is useful to have a second account - mine is used for emails that I mostly will delete and for unimportant transactions. However, when I access my main email account online (not through the app on my device), I get texts on my mobile phone to say my account has been accessed and if I didn't access it, to let them know. This is also followed up by an email to my recovery account saying the same thing. I get plenty of warning about access to my email account. It might be worth considering. A recovery email address will help if you accidentally get locked out of your account as well.

You may know all this but it could be useful for others to consider too.

I am on the other end of this. Someone hacked into my email address book - I have no idea how as I have all the recommended protections - and people keep getting these messages from me. I have changed my password so no-one new can do this, but there is nothing I can do about the person/ bastard who already has the list.

Yes I regularly get the one saying they are sending some photos they think I would want to see. I know it's a scam as it's supposed to come from the lady that ran Music with Mummy when I used to take my GD there 8 years ago!

They arrive in spam and I just delete them. I've never opened one.

I have had several recently, as fast as I block them another arrives with different address.

I recently had a message from a friend with a link saying “is this you in the photo”. She had been hacked. I didn’t click on the link just deleted it.
Another from someone calling me Mum (unknown number) saying they had dropped phone into toilet so had to borrow a phone and they had an emergency and could I send money to details on link. Ha do they think I am stupid??

Yes, I have had several of these from someone on my contact list. The address always ends in “eu” I did open the first one, as I assumed it was from my contact. Thankfully no harm was done. They still turn up on a regular basis & I block them, but they are sent from multiple addresses all ending in “eu”

Yes, I have had several supposedly from a friend that I have lost contact with.
I delete them, put them in Junk, but they do keep coming back.

They come through to an old email address that I use very rarely.

These emails are from scammers, who install malware on your laptop if you click on the link to the ‘photos’. I ignore all email attachments for two or three days, as the security software on my iPad removes the dodgy ones, but not immediately.

We regularly get one from our 'son in law' but it isn't him. We've blocked it but it still keeps coming.

I got a message from my late cousin's daughter telling me that I should look at the videos that she had found as I was in them. I knew that it was not physically possible that she had videos of me. I contacted the lady and she confirmed that she had been hacked.

I've had a couple from a friend. They didn't look right so I just deleted them. Someone had one supposedly from me so I told her to delete it.

I received several similar emails from my husband!

Get into the habit of checking the email address of the sender before doing anything with the email. If it's not their email address (mine seemed to come from abroad - .au at the end), it does not mean they have been hacked but someone is using their name.

In this case, put the emails in your 'Junk' file for your email provider to filter out. You should stop seeing these mails but it won't block genuine email addresses.

Yes, I had odd emails from a cousin a couple of years ago. His email had been hacked. Don’t click!

I had an Instagram message "from" someone I know but only ever talk to about our creative works and how to achieve what we want to...
"He" was at first " just saying hello" and it sounded normal but it was the middle of the night so very odd.
I said what are you doing up in the middle of the night - (I thought he might have a deadline) and suddenly he was really off and wanted me to go to look at a website and was most insistent.

This was totally out of character for my mild mannered respectful friend ... I said "phone me in the morning" - it was clearly not him.