Is this the most unethical email scam ever?

Any one of our regular readers will be aware that scammers will plunge to some pretty dark, immoral depths to fool users into falling for their scams.

For example, our most recent post outlined how scammers were exploiting the missing flight from Malaysia to lure visitors into completing spammy surveys.

Scammers have also been known to steal photos of disabled children and trick Facebook users into sharing them under the false pretence that they will be helping the child, to help accumulate followers for Like-Farming pages.

But scammers have really plunged to new depths with this latest email scam – an email purporting to come from NICE (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) that tells the recipient that they may have cancer.

The scam email, signed Dr. Burns Maxine

The email claims that a recent blood test has indicated the presence of cancer and that the recipient should print the attachment and visit their doctor as soon as possible. However the attachment, according to reports, harbours malware.

Email scams that lure the victim into opening dangerous attachments are a popular type of email scam. It is possible that phishing variants that lead to spoof websites may also exist as well.

NICE have denied that the email came from them in a message on its homepage.

NICE is aware that a spam email is being sent to members of the public regarding cancer test results. Please be assured that this email is not from NICE and we are currently investigating its origin.

Many worried recipients who recently underwent blood tests were angered as to how the scammers seemed to know who to target, suggesting personal information from NICE may have been leaked to the scammers.

However reports of this email scam have been received far and wide, suggesting that it is likely just a coincidence (or perhaps an inevitability) that some recipients recently underwent such tests.

Once again scammers have highlighted that there really is no limit to how depraved or corrupt their tricks and cons can become. If you have friends who may become worried by this latest scam, let them know that it is just a trick.

NICE have claimed the incident has been reported to the police and it is currently being investigated. If you do receive an email like this, ignore it, and delete it.

If you think that you have downloaded any suspicious software to your computer, run up-to-date computer protection software straight away. Don’t have any? Click here for our recommendations on computer protection software.

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