I figure we should break down this obvious scam of an email so you know what to look out for. Note I will be blocking out personal info. And in this case it clearly is a scam, but I figured it is worth to do a deeper dive so if you aren't sure then this is what to do.

The email:

https://preview.redd.it/ltmhzb1s4zkb1.png?1410&format=png&auto=webp&s=566e5eb757de19cc3f2d567f69762df16fdfdb85

Look at the to/from:

In this case it is being sent by BCC to me and main to some yahoo address

https://preview.redd.it/eafnckfd6zkb1.png?601&format=png&auto=webp&s=20e0c14804e94847aaf55373b8d1064a985fa5d1

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The reason why is simple. They likely got my email from some list along with hundreds or thousands of others. They would put the addresses they want to scam in the BCC area so you can't see the other addresses of those scammed. This preventing people who know their stuff from contacting possible victims or a real case being made on this scam.

Now why the to, it is likely 1 of 2 things.

1. A scammer group hired another to do this, and the to is sent as evidence. Like what happens with some of these scammer groups is an employee at the group will do this to prove they are doing their job.
2. Or it is likely a blank account.

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Anyways, a good tell tell sign is obviously the from. Looking it up

Tencent QQ (Chinese: 腾讯QQ), also known as QQ, is an instant messaging software service and web portal developed by the Chinese technology company Tencent. QQ offers services that provide online social games, music, shopping, microblogging, movies, and group and voice chat software.

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Message itself:

https://preview.redd.it/gim0saz08zkb1.png?1061&format=png&auto=webp&s=74d059fb39f69980ad509caf727226455742446f

It honestly makes no sense to someone who actually knows how crypto works in detail. So it's likely this is aim to scam noobs.

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Like if the reward is on my wallet already, then it would be impossible for it to leave my wallet unless if I signed some smart contract already or if whomever controls 51%+ of the blockchain.

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Then we can get into basic stuff like

Please use today during the day.

99% of the time the reason for this is the person doing the scam doesn't speak/write English. I suspect as AI becomes more widely used. I suspect this detecting if something is a scam from screwed up structure will be a thing of the past.

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(for non-English people. Saying "please use today, during the day" is redundant. It's basically saying "please use today, during today." Or it's asking for the victim to use it during daytime hours, but to do it today.)

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There is other factors like of you recognize the coin/company, the action it is telling you to do, and so on.

The goal of the scammer:

Obviously I'm not clicking on it, but to my guess 1 of 2 things would happen.

1. Ransomware or some other malware. If you want to see what that looks like, here is a video https://youtu.be/ttBcbe-lktg?si=2mwbCTwFmRDd8H76
2. They want me to sign some smart contract or maybe steal some passwords or something.

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Solution:

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In cases like this, there is no way of really knowing how they got my email. I can do a quick security check to see if there is reports of anything been hacked. Hopefully you use different passwords for everything in this day in age anyways.

But beyond that, mark as phishing, delete, and move on. Sadly, there isn't anything you realistically can do.

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In cases where you have some idea where they got your email. First off report it to the company if they don't have anything out yet. Like it is possible their systems were breached and they simply don't know. Some projects like news letters are just a hobby of someone.

Obviously change passwords around that and depending on what the service is. Think about doing a scan.

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Obviously, never click on any link. If possible never click on a link ever in an email. Go directly to a companies site if possible.

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Note: I never heard of Tether gold, and I tend to stay away from stable coins since I don't have any value in it. This alone made me know this was a scam before I even opened the email.