Possible eBAY Internet Scam

[HotdadENYC]

Today I received an email to one of my rarely used AOL screen names, from eBAY, informing me that my account is suspended until I revalidate all of my information.

 

Not only do I not now have, nor have I ever had, an eBAY account, but the information requested on the revalidation screen appears to go way above and beyond information someone would need to open an account there. In addition to credit card information, they wanted banking information, driver's license information, even passport information, as well as answers to a plethora of other personal questions.

 

The request may just be an error (they do happen) but something seemed a little fishy so I just sent it to the spam folder.

 

It almost goes without saying, but please be careful when divulging ANY type of personal information on the Internet (or anywhere else, for that matter). If you are a valid eBAY subscriber and receive the same or a similar e-mail, I would check with eBAY first to verify that the request is legitimate.

 

I just now read the thread about Internet scamming and that prompted me to add this to the ever-growing list of ways people try to get over on the Internet.

 

On another note, I think it is very considerate and thoughtful for HooBoy to post a disclaimer on the home page about sending advance money or deposits to escorts who are not well reviewed. Thank you very much. Perhaps the warning should be a bit larger print ! In my opinion the only thing worse than a bad experience with an escort is hearing about clients who were scammed for money in advance.

[HotdadENYC]

Today I received an email to one of my rarely used AOL screen names, from eBAY, informing me that my account is suspended until I revalidate all of my information.

 

Not only do I not now have, nor have I ever had, an eBAY account, but the information requested on the revalidation screen appears to go way above and beyond information someone would need to open an account there. In addition to credit card information, they wanted banking information, driver's license information, even passport information, as well as answers to a plethora of other personal questions.

 

The request may just be an error (they do happen) but something seemed a little fishy so I just sent it to the spam folder.

 

It almost goes without saying, but please be careful when divulging ANY type of personal information on the Internet (or anywhere else, for that matter). If you are a valid eBAY subscriber and receive the same or a similar e-mail, I would check with eBAY first to verify that the request is legitimate.

 

I just now read the thread about Internet scamming and that prompted me to add this to the ever-growing list of ways people try to get over on the Internet.

 

On another note, I think it is very considerate and thoughtful for HooBoy to post a disclaimer on the home page about sending advance money or deposits to escorts who are not well reviewed. Thank you very much. Perhaps the warning should be a bit larger print ! In my opinion the only thing worse than a bad experience with an escort is hearing about clients who were scammed for money in advance.

[+ deej]

The Ebay scam is well-known and is just one example of what's called "Phishing". It is a blatant attempt at identity theft, and it succeeds all too frequently because it looks realistic. Citibank and Washington Mutual have been frequent targets as well.

 

NEVER give your personal information to a webpage you've clicked on from an email message. If your bank (or someone else) needs you to validate something, they'll tell you to go to their website without giving you a link. That way, you know you're getting to THEM instead of being redirected by a bogus link.

 

Nobody should EVER ask for your password or other information in email. If they do, consider taking your business elsewhere.

 

One of the most pervasive viruses over the last year arrived in emails purportedly from Microsoft proffering "the latest security patch". Everyone's heard about Microsoft's security patches, right? It looked legit, with the right logos & such. BUT IT WASN'T FROM MICROSOFT AND IT CARRIED A DANGEROUS VIRUS.

 

Be VERY wary of email. Read between the lines. When in doubt, call the vendor if there may be a legitimate issue.

[+ deej]

The Ebay scam is well-known and is just one example of what's called "Phishing". It is a blatant attempt at identity theft, and it succeeds all too frequently because it looks realistic. Citibank and Washington Mutual have been frequent targets as well.

 

NEVER give your personal information to a webpage you've clicked on from an email message. If your bank (or someone else) needs you to validate something, they'll tell you to go to their website without giving you a link. That way, you know you're getting to THEM instead of being redirected by a bogus link.

 

Nobody should EVER ask for your password or other information in email. If they do, consider taking your business elsewhere.

 

One of the most pervasive viruses over the last year arrived in emails purportedly from Microsoft proffering "the latest security patch". Everyone's heard about Microsoft's security patches, right? It looked legit, with the right logos & such. BUT IT WASN'T FROM MICROSOFT AND IT CARRIED A DANGEROUS VIRUS.

 

Be VERY wary of email. Read between the lines. When in doubt, call the vendor if there may be a legitimate issue.

[Rick Munroe]

>If you are a valid eBAY

>subscriber and receive the same or a similar e-mail, I would

>check with eBAY first to verify that the request is

>legitimate.

 

I get them all the time. You should forward it to [email protected] so they can investigate. I'm not sure what they can really do about it but that's what ebay says to do and I'm a good obedient boy so I do it.

[Rick Munroe]

>If you are a valid eBAY

>subscriber and receive the same or a similar e-mail, I would

>check with eBAY first to verify that the request is

>legitimate.

 

I get them all the time. You should forward it to [email protected] so they can investigate. I'm not sure what they can really do about it but that's what ebay says to do and I'm a good obedient boy so I do it.

[+ deej]

>I'm not sure what they can really do about it

 

Not a lot, unfortunately. The vast majority of these are sent by viruses/trojans/worms running on compromised PC's. But the industry as a whole is taking a very aggressive approach toward tracking down the originators and the more data they have the better.

[+ deej]

>I'm not sure what they can really do about it

 

Not a lot, unfortunately. The vast majority of these are sent by viruses/trojans/worms running on compromised PC's. But the industry as a whole is taking a very aggressive approach toward tracking down the originators and the more data they have the better.

[LovesYng]

>>If you are a valid eBAY

>>subscriber and receive the same or a similar e-mail, I would

>>check with eBAY first to verify that the request is

>>legitimate.

>

>I get them all the time. You should forward it to

>[email protected] so they can investigate. I'm not sure what

>they can really do about it but that's what ebay says to do

>and I'm a good obedient boy so I do it.

 

I get them all the time from Citi Bank and I always forward it to [email protected], also get them from E bay but not under the screen name I use for E bay.

 

OMG Rick, when are you "OBEDIENT". That's not what I heard

 

When in doubt I whip it out :+

[Guest zipperzone]

>and I'm a good obedient boy so I do it.

 

Hmmmmmmmmmm I'm sure that's half your charm!

[eastbayguy]

>Not a lot, unfortunately. The vast majority of these are sent

>by viruses/trojans/worms running on compromised PC's. But the

>industry as a whole is taking a very aggressive approach

>toward tracking down the originators and the more data they

>have the better.

 

Actually, you'd be surprised. The security team at eBay has some incredibly smart people and very sophisticated tools. A colleague from my past is at eBay now, and has given me a glimpse behind the door. I was very impressed by what they do and the methods at their disposal. Each report they get does have value, and is tracked.

 

The sender turns out to be unimportant, as most of these phishing spams do originate in hijacked machines. The other end of the transaction is much more interesting.

 

--EBG

[Justice]

A couple of years ago, I got an e-mail, at work, from Paypal. I must have given my work e-mail address as a back-up e-mail address for Paypal. It was actually kind of scary, because in order for them to get the e-mail address, they had to hack into at least part of my Paypal account. It asked to verify all of the Paypal info. (It's one of the reasons why I refuse to link my Paypal account to my checking account. I use the same credit card that I use for all internet transactions.) I didn't fall for the scam. I immediately deleted it. (Although I will admit to secretly wanting to fill it out with lots of obscene bogus info.)

 

Justice

[+ deej]

>A couple of years ago, I got an e-mail, at work, from Paypal.

>I must have given my work e-mail address as a back-up e-mail

>address for Paypal.

 

Oh, not at all! The social engineering that goes into these "blast" emails relies on you being terrified about something they actually guessed at. You probably never gave that address to PayPal.

 

Bottom line: PayPal will NOT ask you for your password, or anything else, via email.

 

Trust nothing.

 

I routinely get emails that seem like they're from Citibank. I actually do have accounts at Citibank. But the emails come in on addresses that Citi's never heard of. Someone is phishing.

 

AT THE VERY LEAST, delete them without responding. Or forward them to abuse@whatever, or spoof@whatever. But DO NOT CLICK THE LINKS THEY PROVIDE.

 

Don't accuse your vendor of leaking just because some spoofer's software is crafty about what it sends out.

[noviceny]

I got the same email and it was just after buying some stuff off E-Bay. I just decided to delete it. After all what important news could they tell me : 1) My account is suspended - cool I was spending to much money at that site,

[FrancoDiSantisxxx]

What Will You Do?

 

Two comments:

 

When you look at the details behind the underlying prosecution of the guy in the AOL/Virginia spam case, wherein they were getting thousands of people to respond to what most of us might think of as clearly bogus e-mails, you realize that there is a great deal of money to be made in spam (ten thousand people sent in credit card orders at $39.95 in one month alone).

 

http://informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=51202810

 

Unfortunately, I forget the source, it may have been either the New York or Los Angeles Times, or the Sunday magazine of either newspaper, but I recently read a long article about how hackers were bringing down web sites and demanding "protection" payments not to do it, particularly to gambling web sites. What they would do is bring a site down during a heavy season, like the super bowl, in order to extort the payment. These payments could be as much as hundreds of thousands of dollars. One site fought it and, after a great of work by an internet security firm, were able to track down one of the programmers: an unemployed Russian in his early 20s who only made about $2K a month for what was considered very sophisticated work.

 

Obviously, with this kind of money to be made, criminal elements will get involved and spam and other internet fraud will go from an annoyance to something more serious. Deej mentioned one of the worst problems, which is people with high speed connections but no firewall or other security, who get the computers compromised, and in turn, these machines are used for the fraud and bogus e-mails, etc.

[Luv2play]

I get two types of scam e-mails on a regular basis. Both are purportedly from Paypal. One informs me that a new name has been added to my account and if this is not correct, please click on the link to verify etc etc. The second will say I have made an authorized payment from my Paypal account (usually in the hundreds of dollars) to a third party and if there is a problem please verify by clicking on the link etc etc.

 

I send both to spoof@Paypal and get an automatic reply saying these messages are not from Paypal and not to respond to them and they are investigating etc. Of course nothing happens and the messages keep coming.

 

I also get a mesage from supposedly PayPal (same logo, everything looks legit on the e-mail, asking for PayPal e-mail handling Opinion needed. They use e-mail addresses that are almost like the real PayPal ones and one has to look very carefully to distinguish between the two. Again I send this to spoof@PayPal.

 

It really is a pain to have to deal with these bogus e-mails but the cardinal rule is, NEVER respond directly to the e-mail by clicking on the links they provide and offering info about yourself to them. PERIOD.