I guess I just need to vent a little here. In the past two weeks I have had two different approaches from internet scammers. The first one responded to a classified ad I have online for a motorcycle for sale. They offered to pay me my asking price and an additional amount for shipping it to them. They sent me a counterfeit check written on a real account number. The check was written on Poca Valley National Bank cashiers check. They are a legitimate bank but they are also a victim. Their website has an announcement that can help you recognize one of these counterfeit cashier's checks. The day fter the check arrived they told me that they had arranged the final details and the shipping would be $1700. They had sent me $2500 towards this (on a counterfeit check) and they asked if I would give them back the balance through Western Union. Yea. Right. I forwarded this to The US Secret Service and they said there about 10,000 of these a day. The real stickler is that they use a legitimate account number on these checks so someone somewhere is getting screwed along with you.

The other one I recieved today. The e-mail was from a bank that claimed my online banking may have been compromised. I should follow the link and post my name, address, account number, online banking username and password, and social security number for ID verification. Then I could review my account to check for fraud. Yea. Right.

I was lucky to be cynical enough to be naturally suspicious. I share this with you all so that you might recognize this threat if someone picks you as the next target. Be aware and don't give out any sensitive info to anyone anytime.

 

Unfortunately there are thousands of internet scams. A good rule to remember is not to input ANY information that is requested by email. Only enter the information if you are the one who went to the website and you are logging on. NO respectable business will request passwords, account numbers, pin numbers, passwords, etc through an email.

I recieve these daily. ONe of the worst ones is masking themselves as paypal. They ask you to enter your account name and password and of course somebody not related to paypal is recording your keystrokes. from there they go into paypal and if you have cash they empty the account to themselves and change the password so you can't get into your own account. Then they go to eBay and other sites that accept Paypal and spend money from a credit card or savings account that you have registered with them. They will always find "Buy it Now" auctions and places where they can make immediate payment. Unfortunately, they use short term PO boxes with a fake name and it is very hard to catch them.

One way to detect a scam is to mouse over the link you are supposed to click but don't click it. just run your mouse over it. Then look in the link address bar at the bottom of your browser and it will display the link that it will actually take you to.

I subscribe to http://www.scambusters.org/ and I usually get info about scams before I get the scam itself.

I have never fallen for one of these scams but many have. I have had people hack into my ebay account and bid on very expensive stereo equipment though. Luckily I found out and was able to contact the seller and retract the bid.

HD

 

My wife works at Walmart, and goes to the Walmart benefits page sometimes to see how much her paycheck will be. Yesterday when she went there I noticed that she had made a typo in the address, which took her to a fake wallmart benefits page, that asked for her account number and such. Good thing we caught it in time.

 

There are hundreds of these scams out there and the task force set up to track them in Can. calls them the Nigerian 419 scams as most run through servers there to remain out of reach by the law .

Many originate in the US but operate from offshore for this reason as well .

Most web sites ,this one excluded , which allow you to post your E Mail Address
have a spyware program running on them which is similar to a keystroke spy but
only searches the site for your address or personal information and mails it out to a journal that the spam merchants subscribe to .

If they have yours you will now probably start receiving offers to move millions of dollars of found or locked money or you have won a lottery etc.etc.

I received a certified cashiers check with security watermarks etc all intact and present for $7000 US in partial payment for a vintage guitar which made it $8763.00 Can. after the exchange rate and just a little under the $10,000
limit which starts a bank inquiry here .

This cheque was good at my bank and they would have given me the loot on site but I deposited it and put a 30 day hold on the amount to see if it would clear The Indian River Bank in Vero Beach Fla.where it was drawn on .

It did not clear there of course and any money I'd have used or forwarded to a second party would have came out of my pocket .

These guys prey on that sector of society that still for some reason believe that they will somehow receive something for nothing without winning the power ball or whatever .

Now they even have scams to convince some that they have won a lottery they never entered or purchased a ticket for .

Same ol' , same ol' If it sounds too good to be true , good chance it is .

 

I liked the one I got the other day for CitiBank, asking me to click on the link, and enter my information to make sure my info was correct.

Just for laughs I clicked on it, enter a random name, random numbers, and all that jazz. Then I was sent to a page that said something like 'Thank you, your account information has been verrified as correct blah blah blah'

the kicker? I have never used citibank.

 

That isn't usually the case. Any decent scammer can make the window at the bottom of a browser display whatever he wants it to when you mouse over a link, and they usually do. They can also use a variety of ASCII character codes to mask what is displayed. To see if that is the case, you really have to view the HTML source.

The only safe way to confirm information, or check to see if there really is a need to do so, is to type the URL directly into the address field of your browser, or call the institution in question on the phone. Just don't use any phone number included in the questionable email; look it up yourself.

Be skeptical of any email asking for ANY personal information, whether it be as simple as your name or as complex as your whole life's history. There is no company in the world that would email you to get you to confirm any of this information. The same goes if you get a phone call requesting any of that. Tell the person you will call them back. Look up the number yourself, call and ask for that person. Chances are they don't exist.

 

pikacu,

You are correct about the mouse over issue. Any decent scammer can make it appear as they want to. I just have noticed that most of the scams that I get are not sent by the people of the highest intelligence. Most have misspelled words and use improper grammar in the composition of the email and MOST that I have gotten have not masked the address at the bottom.

Thanks for pointing this out though because the way I wrote that may have misled some people. That is just one thing that you could check and I fully concur about the phone call to the company. Many will want you to forward the email scam to them.


HD

 

When you buy something on e-bay dont buy anything where the seller is out side of the usa. My brother bought something for 150 bucks from some guy in switzerland and he tried to resolve it on paypal and they cant do anything if it is out of the states. I was on there last night and some guy bought a guitar from someother country and he payed 5000 bucks for it and when it arrived it was a replica of the guitar he wanted

 

That's one reason I will only accept postal money orders. I have some parts I am selling and someone offered to pay me a cashiers check but I told them no. I hope they understand it's nothing personal, just trying to be careful.

 

Here is a sample scam found in a recent email I received. Funny how the email address was NOT even mine, but was somewhat similar. The bank is legitimate but the email is a scam. Heck, I don't even have an account there and I had never heard of them until 10/18/04. I did a lil' investigation on the email; the sender has an IP address in Amsterdam (213.213.201.172). As everyone here knows (RIGHT?) no legitimate bank will ever ask you, online, for the information requested in this email.

What was even more interesting was the hidden text found at the bottom of the email. The email itself was not text, it was an image. Here's the hidden text: Attila the Hun Personals have got in 1855 Alabama in 1953 I'm sorry BMW did you fear Female in 1928 Mortage Rates Teletubbies Prom Hairstyles in 1824 in 1925 in 1915 MIR loook at MGM Take it easy! Ramadan Playstation 2 Appartments in court?

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You know, I can't begin to express my frustration with the multitude of ripoffs out there. It's not enough that you have to spend 4 figures for a decent computer, but then there's the firewall, spyware, virus scan, nigerian scams, pop-ups, etc. If it were not for this website I would recieve nothing but misery from my personal computer. Just imagine if someone tried to take your $1000 car every other week. It's enough to make you want to