Wigwam Jones
09-10-2004, 01:57 PM
There are a lot of us here who use eBoy and Paypool and so on, because we buy and sell vintage audio kit. There are a lot of scams floating around via e-mail, which attempt to get you to click on a web page link inside an e-mail and then submit some personal information such as credit card numbers, social security numbers, ATM pin numbers and so on. They do this by posing as 'authentic looking' e-mails that SEEM to be from the people they claim to be. However, if you click on the link given and submit your information, you've just had your identity stolen and you WILL be robbed by fraud shortly thereafter. Your life will become MOST UNPLEASANT while you try to untangle the mess that your credit record has become. Even if you end up paying no damages, your credit record at the least will be shot. This method of getting people to reveal personal and private information about themselves is known as 'phishing'. FYI, the term comes from the old-time defauding of the phone company, known as 'phreaking' and the fact that the scammers are 'fishing' for data from you. Phreaking was itself a combination of 'PHone' + 'fREAKING' = 'phreaking'.
Anyway, there is a LOT OF BAD SCOOP being passed around the internet - what you should do when this happens to you, etc. Unfortunately, most of it is useless or dangerous. I have read TOO MANY messages that offer advice such as "Oh, well if it is badly spelled or uses poor english, it is a scam. Otherwise, it's probably ok." NO! It is true that very often the perpetrators of these schemes are not native english speakers, but there are NO examples of Paypal (et al) EVER asking anyone to click on a link and reveal personal information. There is NO WAY to determine if such a thing is 'legit' because IT NEVER IS LEGIT. Yet I keep reading this well-meaning but dangerous advice. Please folks, if you don't know what you're talking about, stop spreading around bum scoop - someone is going to end up believing you and getting ripped off.
Going after these punks yourself is ill-advised at best. Trying to turn the tables on them could be dangerous - some of them are actually connected to REAL gangs of REAL dangerous criminals, not just kids ditching school and trying to get your credit card number to buy a membership on a porno website. I'm not saying that if you mess with these guy's minds you'll be tracked down and hurt or killed by them, but really - not worth the admittedly small risk. JUST DELETE THE E-MAIL.
If you really want to report these (and many of us do), then there is a fraud clearing house operated by the FBI for reporting such attempts. It is here:
http://www.ifccfbi.gov/index.asp
Please don't listen to well-meaning people who tell you to post your information here or there, or tell you to call this person or that. In the USA, there is only one place to go, and it is listed above. Google for it yourself if you feel so inclined - people should always verify advice they receive in a forum like this anyway.
Flat-out basic advice: NEVER CLICK ON A LINK IN AN E-MAIL. NEVER. No reputable retailer or business will require you to click on a link in an e-mail anymore - there has been too much fraudulent activity surrounding e-mail links, and they know it. If you can't type the URL into a browser yourself, don't go there. Any e-mail link can be made to look like a 'real' or 'safe' link - and unless you are trained at examining the source code that built the e-mail message, you won't know that you're really being redirected to a bogus website.
Here is an example of such an e-mail I recently received. Please note that it sure LOOKS authentic - but it is not. In fact, if you examine the HTML source code for the 'Paypal' link, you see this:
http://mincurobert.go.ro/index.html
And that was a simple, unsophisticated one! Because web browsers can interpret URLs in many ways, the actual URL could have been encoded in hexidecimal or binary or any number of hard-to-decipher methods that may have made it look like so much gobbledy-gook to the untrained eye - or even to someone with experience, unless they really studied the message source code in depth.
So anyway, folks, that's my PSA. There are a lot of these scammers out there. They use the same basic scheme for Paypal, eBay, and lots of different credit card companies. Please be careful. Please don't click on links inside e-mail messages. And if you decide to report such attempts, use the Internet Fraud Complaint Center - don't give in to temptation to try to turn the tables on the scammer. At best, he still walks away clean, and at worst? I don't want to think about it!
Best,
Wigwam Jones
Anyway, there is a LOT OF BAD SCOOP being passed around the internet - what you should do when this happens to you, etc. Unfortunately, most of it is useless or dangerous. I have read TOO MANY messages that offer advice such as "Oh, well if it is badly spelled or uses poor english, it is a scam. Otherwise, it's probably ok." NO! It is true that very often the perpetrators of these schemes are not native english speakers, but there are NO examples of Paypal (et al) EVER asking anyone to click on a link and reveal personal information. There is NO WAY to determine if such a thing is 'legit' because IT NEVER IS LEGIT. Yet I keep reading this well-meaning but dangerous advice. Please folks, if you don't know what you're talking about, stop spreading around bum scoop - someone is going to end up believing you and getting ripped off.
Going after these punks yourself is ill-advised at best. Trying to turn the tables on them could be dangerous - some of them are actually connected to REAL gangs of REAL dangerous criminals, not just kids ditching school and trying to get your credit card number to buy a membership on a porno website. I'm not saying that if you mess with these guy's minds you'll be tracked down and hurt or killed by them, but really - not worth the admittedly small risk. JUST DELETE THE E-MAIL.
If you really want to report these (and many of us do), then there is a fraud clearing house operated by the FBI for reporting such attempts. It is here:
http://www.ifccfbi.gov/index.asp
Please don't listen to well-meaning people who tell you to post your information here or there, or tell you to call this person or that. In the USA, there is only one place to go, and it is listed above. Google for it yourself if you feel so inclined - people should always verify advice they receive in a forum like this anyway.
Flat-out basic advice: NEVER CLICK ON A LINK IN AN E-MAIL. NEVER. No reputable retailer or business will require you to click on a link in an e-mail anymore - there has been too much fraudulent activity surrounding e-mail links, and they know it. If you can't type the URL into a browser yourself, don't go there. Any e-mail link can be made to look like a 'real' or 'safe' link - and unless you are trained at examining the source code that built the e-mail message, you won't know that you're really being redirected to a bogus website.
Here is an example of such an e-mail I recently received. Please note that it sure LOOKS authentic - but it is not. In fact, if you examine the HTML source code for the 'Paypal' link, you see this:
http://mincurobert.go.ro/index.html
And that was a simple, unsophisticated one! Because web browsers can interpret URLs in many ways, the actual URL could have been encoded in hexidecimal or binary or any number of hard-to-decipher methods that may have made it look like so much gobbledy-gook to the untrained eye - or even to someone with experience, unless they really studied the message source code in depth.
So anyway, folks, that's my PSA. There are a lot of these scammers out there. They use the same basic scheme for Paypal, eBay, and lots of different credit card companies. Please be careful. Please don't click on links inside e-mail messages. And if you decide to report such attempts, use the Internet Fraud Complaint Center - don't give in to temptation to try to turn the tables on the scammer. At best, he still walks away clean, and at worst? I don't want to think about it!
Best,
Wigwam Jones