Topic: A Mail I Received Today.. (Read 318 times)

OP, you get mind sha. You even went far with the whole "trying to find out" what they were up to instead of you avoiding the mail. I wouldn't bother to download any file from such a mail. What if they wanted to infect your device with malware or you didn't think of that? There's always a possibility that something wasn't right with that mail, though you haven't been able to discover that now on your own.

Yes that is their intent exactly and then from the phone they will try and extort more money from you or get you to download "support software" which will be a malware or backdoor so they can steal your bank or funds. An also you should never open any attachment PDF, Document ect. These can be booby trapped with malware upon opening as well. Wether mobile or desktop it dosent matter.

I myself received an even more convincing scam email similar as it came from Paypal itself. Someone got smart and sneaky and renamed their paypal business "Coinbase Limited INC" or similar. Then person creates a bill / charge and put in the memo say like " For your transaction of .126 BTC Purchased on 5/25/2023" and then send it by PAYPALS own system to crypto users emails. So you receive a real looking receipt and transaction from Paypals real email system stating you purchased the dollar amount equivilant of BTC from Coinbase Limited INC. If you have coinbase account you immediatly say WTF!? was my account hacked and they used Paypal? But upon further looking you see its just a bill someone generated and they are trying to get you to pay their paypal bill. Pretty convincing scam however.

Always have to be careful and check these steps;

1) Never open links or attachments.
2) Always verify the email headers and or phone numbers or URLS. (Double Triple Check)
3) If you receive a call hang up and get the real number and follow up with said caller.
4) Most texts are becoming scams as of latly seeing missed AMAZON or USPS or UPS package phish attempts a lot. Especially around the holidays.


Stay vigilant people and stay safe!

I am scared that you made a bogus statement here.
Scammers are the smartest people I have known, just that they use their smartness on the negative path. Whatever is scam related, I always treat it with care.
Those guys are always on research about the latest technology and how to harness it against victims. Their attempts will only look dumb to you only if you are acquainted with that method already.

Using Op's case as the study;

• Do you know that by downloading the PDF, Op's device could be infected?
• Do you also know that by reading the mail, Op email is prone to more attack or spam because he would be marked as an active email (a potential victim)?
• Do you know that if Op gives a call to that number he could be sweet talked to being a victim?

Scammers are just proactive and crooked.

Such emails were found in my mailbox but I normally delete them because I am not interested on them. From the beginning I know that are scammers so I don't keep them in my inbox. Once I see them I would just click the delete button to remove it to the trash box and also delete it from the trash box to free the google storage space. In some cases my believe is that if I open them they would infect my device so the best way is to delete it without opening it. There are different other ones as well.  So the we should be careful for the kind of websites we register with our email addresses because in many cases these guys took our emails from those registration.

I haven't received a similar email but if I do I just hit ignore or mark it spam there is no need to interact it's a phishing email, you know all your actions if you did not do what they claim then you don't have to interact, only trust your contact and avoid unsolicited emails with files on it, scammers check if the email is active by sending you a fund that you are supposed to claim, but its all lies they just want you to interact or scam you.

Downloading the PDF alone  gave them much access to your device. Although it is a scam format which we all know very well but do you think they are that daft to just send you this message just for nothing? They did not send you any wallet address where you supposed order them to make payment to, no confirmation code unlike other exchanges would do, they did not  mention the name of the possible exchange you made such transaction so tell me how on earth do you think they would just wake up and
send you a mail attaching a PDF for you to download to see your order telling you to to make payment.
I think you might have downloaded something more than you see  mate. Go check your device properly.

Even if the mail was "legit", there are tracking pixel that detects if the recipient has interacted with the email.

So the moment you read it or even download the file, the spammer/ scammer already knows this email is an active target and will likely mark it as high-valued.

I know about this website and it is good for general public but I think they are only publishing big leaks that are released in public, so it cant detect any small personal leaks when you register on some fake airdrops or other smaller crypto websites.

I've received an abundance of similar emails over the past few months claiming that I've bought something or paid for some kind of service, with an attached invoice, not related to cryptocurrencies. I haven't bothered to investigate any further, but so far, I don't see how they end up scamming you, perhaps by trying to persuade you to pay the invoice. Scammers are constantly trying to find new ways to scam people, and their innovation surprises me.

Report them and move on, not much you can do to stop them, u less you change your email address.

i happen to receive many of these mails in my email and they are instantly in my spam after that i just read the headers after that i instantly delete all spam emails.
maybe you can check your email on this website https://haveibeenpwned.com/ because on this website you can see which website is in a data breach

Your instinct was right. PDF files can contain malicious codes and become a Trojan, and by downloading and running these PDF files on your devices, the malicious code they injected into them will run, and they will be able to hack your devices easily. And if we assume that these PDF files are not injected with malicious code, they can contain links to scam phishing sites by clicking on them or placing your credit card or any critical data; then they will undoubtedly steal you. As for me, I receive many of these phishing messages constantly. It contains PDF files and many temptations, but I ignore them as if I have never seen them. Also, not only PDF files in the mail are dangerous, but any free PDF files available for download on the Internet can contain a Trojan, so what I see is a safe solution for me I open these files are on cloud reading platforms such as Google Drive, and I do not open them on my main devices.

Better don't download any attachments in future.
Did you use that email address to apply to anything connected with crypto and Bitcoin, maybe some giveaway, newsletter or airdrop?
It is possible they are using this information or addresses from other leaks and they later send mass emails like this.
I received many similar emails, but they go directly into my spam folder.

Yes, this is a classic scam being perpetuated in the other parts of the globe.

a. the email will have the phone numbers that you have to contact
b. if you call them and you said that they you didn't initiate the transaction and they will said that they will refund you the money.
c. and then the next step is that they will ask you to download a software than can access your PC
d. then obviously they can take over your system, if let's say they want you to login to your coinbase account because that's where they are  going to refund you, thru bitcoin.

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Other methods, saying that your Paypal has been limited so you will have to follow the instructions on the email.

a. the email that you will received with Paypal has a link, so if you click on it and you are not careful you will be redirected to a fake Paypal website
b. once you enter your login details, including your password then your account is compromise already.

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Next one, same as the steps above, the only difference is:

a. let's say you wanted to refund $100.00 only, and after giving them access, they will edit something using Developers tools to looks like they have made a mistake of refunding you, and they made a supposedly deposit $1000.00
b. So they will ask you to give them back the $900.00.
c. Ask you to go to a store and buy Amazon Gift cards, it could be in bunch of $100.00 or $500.00.
d. Then obviously, ask you for the redeem numbers so that they can redeem it for themselves.

In the past, when I was still friends with a guy who was learning software programming and ethical hacking, he told me something one day. He said he can send an attack via email, text message, and various other means; the attack could be a picture, a link, or just a PDF, and if the person that is being attacked clicks on the link, he will gain access to some information on his device. So what I am thinking now is that, as you never can tell, that PDF may have been an attack from some scammers; the email might look stupid, but the mistake people make often is clicking on any link, image, PDF, or other external file that is attached to the spam email.

To be safe, never even respond to any email you are not expecting to receive. Just my advice, though.

Any of us here, 1-10 people have received emails, from sources that are not clear about Bitcoin, whether it's orders, extortion and so on, but all of that is purely from online fraud.

I personally have experienced what you experienced, for that you need to do How to Beat Bitcoin Blackmail Emails & Protect Yourself and How to Protect Yourself From Bitcoin Extortion Emails.

It's important that you do:

For complete clarity you can see the source above.

You are very correct mate, if we were still in the days when airdrops thrived, like in 2016/2017/2018, this strategy would have been an easy way to get airdrop participants and some would eventually fall for the trick..
We are indeed no longer in the days when miracle money was believed in(as you put it), at least, back in 2017, I had an experience of what miracle money really is and feels like when I received storm tokens worth over $800 into my wallet, I remember they did an airdrop back those days but I didn't remember applying for the airdrop, how it happened I benefits from the airdrop, I don't know, but I jejely sold it and put the money in bitcoin, and I made a lot of profit from it that same year during bull run.

There's a lot of expert advice and warning that people should not open attachments from unknown sources, these scammers and hackers will send you compelling emails so you'll be tempted to open the file.
Control yourself and just believe scammers sent you to hack your system, even the best AV cannot control what will go to your system if you open the file.

Since you have no idea what they are sending it's better to ignore and not respond they will bait you again if you respond.

Just be careful about opening any attachment, especially if it's from someone you don't know or weren't expecting anything from. No matter how tempting or intriguing that attachment may seem, it's better to play it safe and avoid clicking on it. You never know what they might be hiding in those files and cybercriminals are known to use email attachments as a sneaky way to distribute malware or launch phishing attacks. So it's better to be cautious, even if you have top-notch antivirus software.


It's possible that the whole purpose of sending that email was to get you to open the attachment. You never know, right? Scammers are crafty like that.

Scammers will use many methods to try to deceive people and they often do not list a website but only use an email address or even a telephone number.

I assume they want you to call them and convince you to send them your bitcoins. Next time, if you see a .pdf file embedded in the email, you better not open it because we don't know if it's safe.

I've never received an email like that (or I forgot) because every time I receive an email I don't recognize, I delete it immediately and don't open it at all. And I suggest you also do the same. We have no idea how those scammers will try to trick us so we better be careful.

This bill I also received last year ^[1], and I think mine is more surprising because the sender is paypal itself (this is why I bothered to open it, maybe not if it's from a random address).
Luckily so far nothing has happened.

(error image?^[2])

1. https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/paypal-bill-for-non-users-5425221
2. https://i.imgur.com/xBevTjz.png

Who knows maybe that actually ran a process on background and downloaded a malware. You can't be sure of things unless you start to see changes or something unusual with your device. Sometimes you can't notice them at all. Maybe its a scam where you have to call the number but what if they take it up a notch and make the pdf contain a malware also, in case if the phone call attempt fails.

Maybe running an antimalware is a measure but I don't think its gonna fully work. Best thing is to reset the device where you have run it after making a backup. Another thing, turn off the remote desktop on your device.

OP, the mistake you made was opening that PDF file, you got lucky this time as it looks like there was no malware.

I think this email is from a very stupid scammer, he can't even do this scam method the right way, and that is good

This entire show is to make you call that number, they will pretend to be PayPal "support" and claim that your account was hacked, the scammer will try to connect to your device using AnyDesk to "help you" or for "verification", then they will "refund" the transaction to you but they made a oopsie by sending you extra money and ask you to send back the difference with gift cards or crypto, It's a typical refund scam with PayPal flover.

You can watch this video to see how this scam is done: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NwyEB0zZqs

^ Ohno I'm not sure how those hacks start but there were discussions I've read before that hackers could attach an executable file on a file that when opened, its going to connect to the hacker's server.

It's best to just not open the emails and files attached to them when you know you are not expecting any emails from a company. I think everybody have received emails where BTC is to be claimed by us. The best solution is just to ignore it.

Or they could have been trying to spread malware to your device

Yes, PDFs can be used to spread Trojans or all other kinds of malware if sent by a malicious person. This was a popular way of sending malware to newbies on telegram around 2017/2018
eBook Worms: How to Spot and Avoid PDF Malware


Your android device might not be safe if you opened random PDFs from strangers

I haven't received an email like that but I will have an idea once I receive one since you posted this, maybe it's a wrong send if someone can confirm that they also receive emails like that then it's intended to scam people since you have nothing to do with the platform or have not bought or purchased anything there, I'll just ignore them but will not respond if your response they will get the idea that you have an active email and you've read their email and will likely send you more emails from their different scheme.
Whenever I receive from an unknown source I just hit spam I don't delete it so it notifies Gmail that this kind of email is spam in nature.

Scammers are so dumped to the extent they believe everyone is dump like them,  if not in this age and time such scam formulas doesn't work anymore and gone are those days when people believe in miracle money, which is money flying to someone's account without any action or input from the individual.


Why such scams thrived much in the past is because of the place of airdrop most newbies were too greedy and looking for free bitcoin and any such possibility is an opportunity for them and if they contact the scammer, they will be asked to pay a fee which will become the potential scam target.

Best to delete and avoid such emails and never click any attached links.

So guys, I received this mail today from an unknown person or company claiming I ordered for bitcoin from their platform(never did),



And the mail contained a pdf file which they claim contain the details of the transaction, it's my first time of receiving such a mail, and my instinct already told me it's a scam attempt, but I still went ahead to download and open the pdf file since I was on mobile, opened the pdf file and below is it's content..



Like I said above, I know this is a spam mail and possibly a scam attempt, but what I don't get is that, the scammer didn't mention a website or wallet app (aside PayPal and coinbase) where I could try to claim the bitcoin they claim i supposedly bought from them, as I believe this has always been their normal process, but rather, they provided a phone number which they claim is toll free, is this actually a plot for me to call them?
How possibly or what exactly are they possibly goin to say to me to make me send them my bitcoin?, please share if you have an idea.. And also tell us if also received such a mail before, what action did you take?.