Jim Rossman: Don't make a scammer's life easier

This week I received a question about spam emails, "For some time, I am getting emails showing an invoice for services about to be charged to my credit card. Other than ignoring them, do you have any suggestions on how to handle these messages? I've not had any charges to a credit/debit card or withdrawal from bank accounts. So far, I've 'Blocked Contact' when I get one, but these emails are like rabbits in that they seem to multiply. I don't want to change my email address. Any thoughts??"

I've mentioned this before, but it's been a few years.

These emails usually have attachments that are fake invoices or sales orders. When you open it, you'll see it's a bill for a year of antivirus software or for a purchase of Bitcoin through PayPal.

The one thing these emails have in common is a prominent phone number for you to call if you didn't authorize the purchase and want to stop it.

Why?

Previously, you might get a phone call from a scammer, but these days most people don't answer their phones, especially from numbers they don't recognize.

These emails serve to set off an alarm in your head that something bad is about to happen and you need to act fast to stop it – so you call the number.

What the scammers have done is turn the tables. Instead of them calling number after number, hoping to find a sucker who will listen to more than five seconds of their pitch, now they can send out hundreds or thousands of fake emails and simply wait for their phone to ring.

They figure if they can fool someone into believing, and that person actually calls the number, there's a pretty good chance they're in a frantic state and can be talked out of their credit card number or other personal information.

Something like, "Yes, Mr. Smith, the invoice has already been processed, but if you can verify your card number, I can get the charges credited back to your account."

You can block them, if you have nothing better to do, but the email that shows up on the scam message will not be valid, and it will be different when you get the next scam message. Also, the phone number will probably only be active for a short period before they change it.

Just ignore them.

Mark them as spam for your email provider and move on.

What can you do?

Just like those spam phone calls, the best course of action is to not acknowledge them at all.

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This story was originally published May 13, 2026 at 3:58 AM.