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widebody911 widebody911 is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Carmichael, CA
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Actually, most people who use the internet are abso-freakin' clueless. It's not a scam to get your email address - it's a scam to get your credit card and PayPal info and go on a spending spree - leaving you holding the bag. The average internet user isn't going to do any sort of verification of the URL. And all of the links at the bottom point to the real ebay site.

There was a good homoglyph scam a year or so ago. A guy registered paypa1.com (numeral one) and was sending "you've got cash" messages to people. He'd set up an indentical copy of the PayPal site, and was harvesting people's ID's and passwords, then cleaning out their accounts.

Even "smart" people can fall for scams. I fell for the VeriSign domain transfer scam last summer; I got a renewel notice from VeriSign to the effect that they were now handing renewals for Network Solutions; I didn't question it and cut them a check. I didn't find out I'd been scammed until I saw a story on /. or some such.

Quote:
Originally posted by old_skul
IMHO, anyone who uses the Internet would be able to see through such a fraudulent scam. It's just yet another way for marketers to get to you. If you're savvy enough about the internet - sorta like walking around in Vegas - you get a good feel for what's for real and what's not.
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Old 01-14-2003, 11:04 AM
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