I'm a bit suspicious, heard from an old friend I used to work with 20-30 yr ago out of the blue

[captain queeg]

I'm sure I haven't heard from him in 15 yrs. He's a good guy but I could see him being a trumper. He said he wanted to ask a favor...that turned my radar on but I answered him. We were in the same line of work so I thought maybe he wants a reference. But now I think about it, he retired 10 yrs before me, so that doesn't seem likely.Anyone been getting recruited from old acquaintances?

[royable]

1. Beware. This is a standard scam ploy.

A person gets their email hacked and the hacker sends an email to all that person’s contacts saying “Hi there, I need a favor.” The reply address may not be exactly the same as the sender address. When you reply they say something like “I am away in a trip and need to give my niece a present. My credit card isn’t working. Could you buy a gift card for her and I’ll reimburse you later?” Or some similar ploy to get money from you.

[captain queeg]

2. thanks for the warning. So many scams these days I'm always suspicious

[Rorey]

6. Funny thing about the one I got

I don't even know the person. I figured we were both recipients of someone else's email that they hacked.

[Patterson]

3. I thinks it's a scam.

[soothsayer]

4. "Can you tell the fbi I was at your house and not in the Capitol?"

I’m with the others: it’s a social engineering-type scam.

[Rorey]

5. It's a scam. Do NOT reply.

I got an email like that just a few days ago. All it said, basically, was the same thing. Can I ask a favor, and then something innocuous, like Happy New Year. If you click on the raw message you can read the header and see that it really wasn't from that person at all.

[captain queeg]

7. That is exactly like the one I got.