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PAYPAL SCAM ALERT!!!

Maj.Nick Danger

I'll Lock Up
Messages
4,469
Location
Behind the 8 ball,..
I just got an email from "Paypal" claiming that my account was in danger of being closed due to "suspicious activity".
( Uhhhmmm,....ya mean like fraud or something???) :eusa_doh:

The email instructed me to click on a link to resolve the so-called issue. [bad] :rage: As any experienced person knows, it's a fake. But for the benefit of anyone that doesn't know,....this is your heads up. The email has the Paypal logo and some sort of Paypal - looking URL,...so it still could fool the unaware,.......so by all means, please BEWARE! :eek:
 

Dalexs

Practically Family
Messages
569
Location
Just 'nath of Baston
Its ok to click on the link. But notice that the page you land on is an IP address an NOT an official secure site.
(Oh go ahead, fill in all that personal info, it won't hurt anything!)

I've gotten tons of these from both Paypla nad Ebay.

all it takes it 1 person to actually give them info to make it all worth while.:eusa_doh:
 

Doh!

One Too Many
Messages
1,079
Location
Tinsel Town
I got one of those awhile back, and the phisher (is that a word now?) was pretty lazy: they merely copy/pasted actual PayPal text, including the part that stated "PayPal will never ask you for your password." Well, the phisher then tacked on a link... that asked for my password!

PS yes, I guess "phisher" is a word now:
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?r=2&q=phisher
 

Maj.Nick Danger

I'll Lock Up
Messages
4,469
Location
Behind the 8 ball,..
I wish they would stop already,........

.....with all their Phreaking (expletive edited) Phishing! :mad:

I suppose there are still people here and there that fall for that, or they wouldn't continue to phish. :eusa_doh:
 

mysterygal

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,667
Location
Washington
what you can also do, is have your computer not accept any junk mail....it's actually very nice...my big worry is viruses...my comp has one...spyware I think it's called, it's done a doozy to my baby :eusa_doh:
 

Solid Citizen

Practically Family
Messages
922
Location
Maryland
Ebay/Paypal Phony Emails

These real looking, but fake emails from Ebay & Payal
looking for ID theft info has been going on for years now.

Bottom line consider them all 100% fake :)eusa_doh:)
delete, better yet do not open & delete.

SC :rage:
 

Maj.Nick Danger

I'll Lock Up
Messages
4,469
Location
Behind the 8 ball,..
Spyware troubles?

mysterygal said:
what you can also do, is have your computer not accept any junk mail....it's actually very nice...my big worry is viruses...my comp has one...spyware I think it's called, it's done a doozy to my baby :eusa_doh:

There are many cures. If you have a good firewall like Zonelab and a good anti virus/spyware program like Norton, they can usually locate the offending software, (Usually deposited in Windows/system32) whereupon you can go to the file and just delete it.
Also there are a few good free anti spyware programs like Adaware and Spybot, available from downloads.com.
 

Hannigan Reilly

One of the Regulars
Messages
120
Location
St. Louis, MO
Most of the fee based anti-virus and anti-spyware programs are over-priced crap that bog down your system. Don't waste your money on them. Grisoft's AVG, Spybot, Ad-Aware SE, Ewido, and Avast are all free from Download.com and work better. I have used them for years and I put them on all my client's machines. Norton, McAfee and Symantec irritate me with their pre-bundled versions on new systems that scare people into renewal fees every 6 months.
:rage:
 

mysterygal

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,667
Location
Washington
I've heard of ad-aware from somewhere before..going to have to get it..seriously, this is getting really old, my comp is sooooo slow and freezes a lot :rage:
 

Solid Citizen

Practically Family
Messages
922
Location
Maryland
Slow Computer

Ms. Mysterygal,

You need someone to clean your PC's hard drive & also install
Ad-Aware/Spybot & run them on a regular basis.

SC :)
 

mysterygal

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,667
Location
Washington
well I'm glad I brought this issue up then! thanks so much for the tip SC....I know nothing about computers so it was getting very frustrating!:eek:
 

Trickeration

Practically Family
Messages
548
Location
Back in Long Beach, Ca. At last!
I once caught my husband starting to fill out a form for "Ebay" and stopped him. At first he didn't believe someone could come up with such authentic looking emails. I told him we should confirm the so-called "problem" with our account by checking our account through ebay itself. Not only did we have no alerts from ebay, we found mention of being aware of phishing scams. My husband learned his lesson without harming our accounts. We don't get a lot of phishing emails, but we do get them now and them. Usually they're disguised as Paypal or bank notices.

Mysterygal- I'm also no very computer-savvy yet, but I downloaded a free trial of McAfee Anti-spyware not long ago and I just love it. I'd tried several others but they either didn't work on one series of pop-ups I kept getting, or looked like they might actually cause some other form of endless spam. The first time I ran the McAfee, it found 26 components that it found questionable, along with 3 that came up as Trojans. With some research I learned that the Trojans were responsible for the pop-ups I couldn't get rid of. McAfee removed all of them, including the Trojans, and has been reliable enough for us to plan on buying it once our trial is over. Good luck! :) Trix
 

Hannigan Reilly

One of the Regulars
Messages
120
Location
St. Louis, MO
Mystery Gal- I do this for a living and if your PC is running slow and freezing up, it needs major cleaning immediately. Not to scare you, but if you have personal info on the PC or are doing personal business online (checking bank accounts, online trading, or anything with your credit card numbers being sent) stop NOW until it has been cleaned. The system is not secure and your info may have already been compromised.

Trojans are the most dangerous as they are made to compromise personal information and pass it on over the network without your knowledge. Viruses are destructive to the computer itself, ultimately destroying the hard drive or erasing files. The symptoms you described are consistent with these two types of infections. Call a reputable PC repair service in your yellow pages (not Best Buy or Circuit City, or only as a last resort) and let them know you need a complete security scan and cleaning. Shouldn't cost more than $50 to $100.
 

scotrace

Head Bartender
Staff member
Messages
14,382
Location
Small Town Ohio, USA
Two Observations

* I look at viruses and spyware and trojan horses, blah blah blah, the way Superman views bullets.

* 90% of Identity Theft cases are actually instances of Identity Handing Over With Both Hands.
 

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