My husband and an acquaintance also from Manchester, UK now living in Israel were among citizens targeted by an expert cyber fraudster who impersonated the Israel Post Office, stealing more than NIS 200,000 - about $67,000 or £50,000.
Thousands of people received 'phishing' telephone text messages, from 22-year-old Palestinian, Muhammad Abbasi of Swahara near Jerusalem, that stated they had to pay NIS 260 to receive packages awaiting them that had been seized by customs.
We spotted and then deleted the message immediately from my husband's phone as it was wholly impersonal, bearing no private details like a customer name, street address or an online parcel tracking number.
But not everyone was so lucky and one victim admitted to having been 'stung' as they had been expecting a delivery and thought the instructions given were genuine.
This episode is surely a salutary warning to us all.
NATALIE WOOD
06 JANUARY 2022
msniwood@gmail.com