OT/ dont get hosed on your paypal account!

[werewulf]

i have been using paypal quite a bit lately, because i have been selling some things on ebay. i had just sold a saxophone and was waiting for a large transfer to my account. the buyer said that it would be transfered in a few minutes.
while im waiting for the money transfer, an email pops up and said my account had been suspended. damn! well im mad now and throw caution to the wind, in an attempt to find out why. there was a button that said reactivate your account here. when i pushed the button, the paypal website came up and told me to log in, so i did. well, as you guessed, it wasnt really the paypal site, but was a perfect clone. but i havent caught on yet, because im mad as hell. i started filing in the blanks, and when i got half of the form filed out, (wanting my personal banking info). i looked at the web browser address. it started with a korean address insted of paypal.com. then there was a paypal suffix.
i called paypal, and they confimed that i had been hosed!! ( in case you arent aware of it, microsoft just released a free spyware remover.) i ran the program and the bastards had hit me with a spy program too. even though i had not completely filled out the form, the tech at paypal said i had better change all passwords on my computer. the only thing i can say in my defense, is that i wouldnt have been such an easy target if i hadnt been waiting for a transfer into my account. shame on me!

[bradzdotcom]

nobody that you play with, financially, will ever ask you to do that.
that paypal clone is good. it's caught a lot of people out.
i've also seen them from bank of america, earthlink...etc...

anybody who says "hey, we need your vitals again" is full of crap.
run away.

...brad

[Rapid Dog]

DATS FREEKIN SCAREY!

[motoyoyo]

So did they make off with any money or were you able to catch it in time. I recently got hit with the "BackdoorHack" virus from some music program my son downloaded. Man, it hit me hard and I had to reformat. I looked up the virus and it was supposed to do the same type of thing as you mentioned. It finds all your saved passwords and sends them off to some place. I've been watching my PayPal for anything out of the ordinary but maybe I'll go change the password just in case.

[Rapid Dog]

From my CU...

Email Phishing Scams
posted Jan 25, 2005


Consumers have seen an uprising of spam that inundates their inboxes, including email phishing* scams. In 2004 businesses have received a dramatic increase in reports of phishing scams. The most targeted industry for phishing attacks is Financial Services. While online banking and e-commerce is very safe, as a general rule you should be careful about giving out your personal information over the Internet.

Phishing is the act of sending an email to a user falsely claiming to be an established legitimate enterprise in an attempt to scam the user into surrendering private information for the use of identity theft. The email directs the user to visit a web site where they are asked to update personal information such as passwords, credit card numbers, social security, and bank account numbers that the legitimate organization already has.

Several steps can be taken to protect your personal information.

* Be cautious of any email that includes requests for personal information
* Do not use links in any unsolicited emails to get to a web page
* Always use secure web sites when submitting any personal information. To make sure the website you are using is secure check the beginning of the address on your address bar. If secure, it will begin with https:// rather than


If you suspect you can also contact the Federal Trade Commission by emailing spam@uce.gov or the Internet Fraud Complaint Center of the FBI at www.ifccfbi. gov.

*When forwarding fraudulent email always include the entire original email with its original header information intact.

[werewulf]

i hope i was able to nix it in time, so far im not any poorer than i was. i called a friend on the sheriffs dept that does identity theft. he advised me to change my bank account tomorrow. why me! i am still awed with how perfect a clone the website was. this is a real wakeup call for me.

[kenmat]

These bastards tried the same thing on me, but I recognized it as fraudulent. I must say it does look legit. I e-mailed pay pal and they confirmed that they are aware of this attempted fraud. One time someone acquired my credit card # and charged $5,000 before a merchant got wise and notified mastercard. All I had to do was sign a statement verifying that it wasn't me that ran up the charge. It is a little scary though.

[foobeemer]

Those scam sites are put together well-they look like the real thing...NEVER follow a link anywhere to any site that starts asking for passwords or finance info. Always type the address of the site you want to go to manually into your browser window when in doubt. Internet financial info transfer programs are safe, but like anything else (especially motorcycle riding) when you get lazy and let down your guard is when you'll get hurt.

[Flatbutt1]

Originally posted by Rapid Dog
From my CU...

* Always use secure web sites when submitting any personal information. To make sure the website you are using is secure check the beginning of the address on your address bar. If secure, it will begin with https:// rather than

Not doubting you RD 'cause I'm an ignoranimus but how come the AMEX site is http not https? Any guess?

[bikerfish1100]

yeah, i've been getting a number of the "a new email address has been added to your paypal account" letters recently. with the requisite links for verifying my info, account and password info, etc. i just forward them to spoof @paypal.com (or spoof@ebay for those that reference to my ebay acct) either way- they is always fakey.
in a related vein, a couple great sites for checking out those "forward this email to everyone you know before their computer eats them alive" warnings are: http://www.truthorfiction.com/ and http://www.vmyths.com/