Likely Normal

Phishing scams are continual and very annoying. You get one, panic for half a second, then think, I’ll just reply and tell them to stop. That’s like handing a bank robber your home address in case he wants to come to the robbery after party.

Why This Doesn’t Work

The sender address is FAKE. It’s not “totallylegit@trustmedude.com,” it’s “haha_gottem@youfellforit.lol.”

Replying = ✨Congrats! You’re now on the sucker list.✨ Expect more scams, now personally addressed to “Dear Extremely Reply-Happy Human.”

Reporting it to the fake address? That’s like mailing a complaint letter to the ghost who haunted your house.

Attacker’s reaction: “Oh sweet, this inbox is alive! Time to upgrade from ‘Nigerian prince’ to ‘IRS audit’ scams!”

What to Do Instead

Don’t reply. (Unless you want your inbox to look like a spam folder’s greatest hits.)

Report it properly to whatever spam protection software your company uses.

Laugh. Because if you don’t, you’ll cry at how many times you’ve almost fallen for “Urgent: Your PayPal account will be removed.”