Alexander (Sandy) Milne

OLDIES appear to be a prime target for scammers and should be especially alert when opening emails.

I got this email last week under the name of a friend of mine whose wedding I attended years ago.

“Glad to hear from you, I will really appreciate it if you can help me get an (Apple iTunes gift card) for a friend’s daughter who is down with cancer of the liver, it’s her birthday today and I promised to get it for her today, but I can’t do this now because I am currently not close to any stores, all my effort purchasing it online proved abortive.

"Can you get it from any stores around you. I’ll reimburse you back".

The wannabe scammer was a poor con-artist and picked the wrong guy to con.  

For a start, my Whakatāne lady friend’s grammar is excellent, unlike that of the person who concocted that email.  

The next point is worrying; my career in healthcare was as a high-profile hospital lab scientist and WHO adviser specialising in control of Hep B-associated liver disease.

The writer thought that he/she would pluck at my heart strings by mentioning that the friend’s daughter was “down with liver cancer”.  

He/she did the opposite. Every local doctor and nurse, and most mothers, should know that almost all the females in the Eastern Bay who are less than 50 years old had been protected against hepatitis B, which was the principal cause of liver cancer in the past.  

Furthermore, we had shown that the vaccine had long-term benefits.  

So, that trick was bound to fail with me. But these ratbags may have ripped off some people lacking my knowledge.

The major blunder was failing to check if I was a Scotsman.

I trust, then immediately verify stuff like that.

This week, I got an email scam message purported to be from the Automobile Association of NZ, inviting recipients to “click here” for a free car emergency kit.

I did not do that, but instead visited the Whakatāne AA office in Victoria Avenue, where the attentive lady behind the plastic screen promptly got to work by calling the AA Headquarters in Wellington while others in the queue indicated encouragement.  

In no time, the AA lady pronounced, “You’re right, Sandy. It’s a scam”, to which there was a chorus of smiles from those behind me in the line, most of whom were less than 50 years old.  

Radio New Zealand news today ran a story of major scams where the elderly will be the number one victim.

Would an existing local service group, or a new one, please step up and help your elders?

This problem is like a cancer.  Awareness can help.

• Editor note:

THE AA yesterday sent an official email alerting customers to the phishing scam using the AA branding.

The fraudulent email, which has been circulating in recent weeks, contains phishing links and takes people to a website where credit card details are asked for.

The AA asks members and customers not to engage with the email and to delete it without clicking the link.

Anyone who has provided credit card details should contact their bank immediately and arrange for their card to be replaced.

They should also contact CERT (cert.govt.nz) and fill in an individual report  for a data breach.