Is this email some sort of phishing scam?

Question

I've never heard of these people, they emailed me today. Is it a scam? It looks dodgy as hell to me.

Email said:
"We are launching an international growth programme this year. We hope that you have enjoyed our service.
We would be very grateful if you know of any English-speaking people who LIVE ABROAD PERMANENTLY. If so we would be very pleased if they would sign-up as a volunteer at www.cosmeticresearchonline.co.uk.
If YOU have not received an invitation to join a trial yet it could be for one of the following reasons:
1. You have entered the wrong country or an incorrect address. Remedy this by logging on with your user name and password:
UID69754
w3tgl0-n8
Then go to My Personal Details tab. Update all of your details and then CLICK ON THE PINK UPDATE BUTTON AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE.
2. You have changed your main email address and not told us. Remedy this as above.
3. You have not fully profiled yourself....

3. You have not fully profiled yourself. Remedy this by logging on and clicking on the My Family Profiles tab. Put a tick beside your name and update your profile. Always remember to click the PINK BUTTON AT THE BOTTOM OF EACH PAGE. Don't worry if it says you are not fully updated as we continuously upload new questions. Please note that you do not have to complete the entire profile if you don't want to. Just answer the questions you are comfortable with.
4. You have multiple allergies. We will only invite you to trials for very sensitive skin. However, we are going to be trialling products other than skin care this year so please hang on.
5. You have performed very poorly on our system before and have a very low volunteer rating. We will clear the rating system occasionally to allow for situations where this has not been your fault e.g if you have had a computer crash
Please do not reply to this email as we are unable to respond.

Answer 1

Don't open emails from companies that you don't recognize. Many contain malicious code that automatically loads onto your computer and others have viruses that do the same thing.
Any email that asks for personal information is a scam and is phishing. If they actually knew who you were, they wouldn't have to ask you for all that information!
Also, if a company that you do recognize sends something saying URGENT! or PENDING DENIAL or ACCOUNT CLOSURE, etc., then it also is a scam unless you actually have business with them. But in that case, still don't open the mail, call the company directly and ask them if there is a problem with your account and verify if they send out those types of emails.

Answer 2

All the information that you gave to the phishing email is now available for that someone to use. For the driver's license number and social security number should be brought up to the Secretary of State as soon as possible. For future reference, NEVER submit any personal information like that unless it is through a secure program via a website such as your bank site, or pay pal on e bay. If ever you are unsure. you can call the company to verify. BE CAREFUL!

Answer 3

Most likely they can sell whatever information they gather. You should open the email and mouseover some of the links to see what URLs they actually lead to. If they do not lead to the Web site they claim to be from it is definitely phishing, and you should report it to the actual Web site the mail claims to be from if it exists. They can then find out who owns those alternate URLs. That is how phishing is done.

Yes, that's right you shouldn't open any unknown email, though I have reported phishing by doing so. Just over confident I guess. You should also turn off your reading pane in MS Outlook if that is what you use. You go to your Inbox -> View -> Reading Pane -> and select Off.

:)

Answer 4

If you've never had any business with the company in question, then I would say yes, it's a scam. In general, (though I'm sure there are exceptions, no legitimate business will ask for any of your personal information by sending an email.

Answer 5

Yes it's a scam.
If it's from whoever and whatever group you don't know,always be in doubt..

also,there are some suspicious stuff in it:
1)they should be the one reaching out to their target market & not ask anyone "if you know any English-speaking people..."
2)From "if you know any English-speaking..." to "if u haven't received..."-these do not connect,it's like jumping from 1 issue to the next-makes no sense.
3)logging on w/ your user name&password given by them??? -isn't it supposed to be private?
4)there are too many instructions and details-most emails from "real" companies/groups don't do that..

and there are still others...but hey,you know what it's really supposed to be right?so just don't bother getting curious about it.

Answer 6

If you haven't ever heard of them, nor volunteered for an international organization, and they want all your personal details, I'd say it's a scam.

Answer 7

I am 96% sure that email is spam. Google who it is from along with the word spam. Whatever you do, DO NOT CLICK ON ANY OF THE LINKS IN THE EMAIL! I reccomend that ou just delete the email.

Answer 8

Yep. Remember, if it seems too good to be true, it is.

Answer 9

scam....spam it...

Answer 10

scam!!!!!!!!!!!!!