Amazingly, NOT A SCAM

[dreamshark]

About a week ago I got a mysterious email inviting me to "Claim Your Settlement Payment" for some old class action lawsuit involving auto parts. Supposedly all I had to do was click the claim button and I would get $100. I of course assumed this was a scam. I don't click on email links.

But the details in the email were sober and specific ("Pursuant to the Court-approved Round 4 Plan of Allocation and Round 5 Plan of Allocation in the matter entitled In Re: Automotive Parts Antitrust Litigation, Lead Case No. 12-md-02311, you are eligible to receive a payment of $100.00.") so I looked it up on the Internet. I found multiple sources insisting that this was a legitimate settlement claim, including the usually angry and skeptical population of reddit. Apparently it's about decades of price-fixing among auto parts suppliers and applies to practically anybody that bought a new car between 2002 and 2018. Well, maybe not any car, but it's a LONG list and both of our vehicles are on it. 

As I said, I NEVER click on links in email, but I decided to take a chance. The link went to a 3rd-party processor that did not ask for money or any personal information like bank account numbers. I did have to give them SOME way to pay me, but Paypal was one of them and that's really quite anonymous. So I filled in the very simple form and gave them my Paypal address. A week later, $100 appeared in my account!

Comments

[carbonel]

I guess it's that season or something. I just got a payment for an Equifax breach settlement. It actually ended up in my spamtrap, but luckily I checked it today for something entirely different and found that one. Only $23 and change, but hey, free money. In this case, it's a virtual MasterCard. I need to remember to use it before it expires in a year.

[redbird]

I also tend to be cautious about that sort of email, and I would have done the same sort of checking as you did.

Looking up the settlement and then going directly to the web page they've set up for the settlement, rather than clicking on a link in the email, usually works.

A few days ago, the CBC website had an article, saying that if you (Canadian) had gotten a message saying that Facebook had sent you money via Paypal, it wasn't a scam, and explaining what specifically Paypal had done wrong leading to this. Because even if the unexpected "someone has sent you money via Paypal" doesn't already sound like a scam, we've all been told that no, Mark Zuckerberg will not send you a thousand dollars, and that email is a scam of some sort.

[dreamshark]

"Looking up the settlement and then going directly to the web page they've set up for the settlement, rather than clicking on a link in the email, usually works."

yes, that would have been an even better practice. Thanks.