When I say scammers are using the hantavirus, I don’t mean they’re engineering devious biological weapon attacks (although I’m sure they would if they could.) It feels like it’s barely been any time at all since a hantavirus outbreak left a Dutch cruise ship stranded and quarantined. Still, being stuck on a giant boat in the middle of nowhere apparently hasn’t stopped some of its passengers from being enterprising… or so it may seem.
Wouldn’t you like to help out someone stuck in a hard spot thanks to the hantavirus? (Or, uh, hentavirus, as this classic scam opener reads.) If you get a text from a hot passenger with only a few days to live who just wants a friend to bequeath all their worldly possessions to, for the love of God don’t send them a gift card.
Professional scambaiter Pleasant Green breaks down the newest scam on the block by (how else?) willfully experiencing it. How nice of him to connect two dying passengers on that same ship so they can make some friends in their last days.