Heads Up Peep's

[SPAZZ]

I got a Spam email, but looked totally real that was a "fishing scam" email trying to get me to click on their link.

It went like this. They sent me an email saying that I purchased this cell phone for a few hundred dollars off Ebay and that they were going to charge my Paypal account in like 24 hours if I didn't click their Paypal link and deconfirm and give all my bank info and personal account info and also confirm all my Ebay account info too.

At first I freaked out, then I laughed pretty hard. Pretty good scam. I minumized screen, opened new screen, opened up paypal and got their fraud link, and forwarded email to them. They sent me a thank you email and said that it was not valid and that they were tracking it overseas somewhere and lost track in europe.

I have also seen on AOL messenger a messenge pop up and say your account is about to be suspended please give me your account info yeah right as if!!!

[VCAMILO]

I get it every few months. Its all started when they stole PayPal web code last year. BE CAREFUL

[WyrreJ]

The net is full of stuff like that. First rule is to never ever click on a link you got via email. No matter how confident you are. Instead, type in the website and navigate from the front page to wherever you are supposed to go. It also helps if you have previously bookmarked the site, that way you can use the bookmark and rule out typos (for example, try going to paypal.cm - .cm is the country code for cambodia and they are now redirecting all typos to their own advertising which is harmless but just imagine what a malicious "typo-squatter" could pull off).

[nfpgasmask]

This is what is commonly referred to as e-mail "fishing". I get dozens of these emails every month, from Paypal, eBay, banks, credit card companies, you name it.

I always roll over the link they supply in the e-mail and see it pointing to something like:

http://64.12.128.53/web/~paypal/info/login.asp

or somthing like that. That is a sure fire way to tell the link is bogus and out to steal your login. Plus, as a general rule, never login to any site via an
e-mailed link, otherwise you're asking for trouble.

The world is full of scammers, hackers, and hijackers, and that's something we all have to live with.

Bart

[transio]

The Russian mafia controls a huge amount of online pay fraud.

[Triathlete]

The newest scam is caller ID. The criminal mind has figured out how to manipulate the caller ID from thier end to make it read what they want (a bank, loan Co., etc.) and just like the net scams they fish you for info. BEWARE!

[Tone]

Happens all the time - forward it to spoof@tonemonday.com - True Paypal emails will always address you by your full name at the top of the mail like:
Dear Anthony Monday,

This is to notify you that a payment....

And they will never ask for your user name or password.

[WyrreJ]

The newest scam is caller ID. The criminal mind has figured out how to manipulate the caller ID from thier end to make it read what they want (a bank, loan Co., etc.) and just like the net scams they fish you for info. BEWARE!

Indeed, this one has the potential to fool a lot of people and the banks have got nothing in place to protect you. The best thing you can do is make the caller prove they are who they say they are by having them tell you something about your account that would be hard for a 3rd party to figure out - like your account balance on the last statement.

Or you can simply refuse to talk to them and instead call them back at the phone number listed on a recent statement. Note that if the caller gives you a number to call back at, even a toll-free number, you can't trust that it is an official number and not one controlled by the phisher.