Paypal Scam
For the past few days I’ve really had a daily reminder as to just how VICIOUS doing ANYTHING online can be today. Today, virtually speaking, you cannot go to ANY public site and not have some sort of cookie loaded onto your machine, or an attempt activex and application installed when you click ‘yes’ (NEVER CLICK YES!) or an attempt to have some part of your body ‘enlarged’ (only thing I need enlarged is my mailbox to hold all that fucking SPAM). The internet today is nothing but a pure infestation of advertisers hiring computer junkies and burnt out nerds to find NEW ways to single handedly fill your computer full of persuasive, invasive, and outright mind boggling amounts of material to get you to buy something, invest in something or look at something. Not to mention gathering your personal information so they are sure to have a solid body of ‘clients’ for future advertising developments that we are ALL interested for sure.
But I’m drifting from my original intent for this post…
Tonight I came across a scary entry, so all you ebay/paypal users perk up and listen - hell anyone that uses a login for ANYTHING should listen…
URL Spoofing is not a new thing - spoofing is basically where you follow a link which directs your browser to a site which MIMICS legitimate site and fools you into believeing you’re logging into your __________ account. WRONG
Paypal - the ever popular and now partner to ebay payment is now another victim in a spoofing scam - a link which directs you to a mimic page, you tap those few keystrokes in for your paypal login and BAM, you’ve just granted access to any money you have stored there and any BANK ACCOUNT information as well. You’re not logging into paypal…you’re logging your login name and password to their running list, giving them the chance to log right in and change your password instantly..locking you out and giving you the financial finger. I could harp about this but you get my point…
Sharing the Groove has a thread about this issue, and notes this isn’t restricted to just IE (for all you Microsoft haters) and shows you you should be concious of URLS you visit, etc. Take a quick look at it, and think about this the next time you start typing in your personal info…
I remember a time when the most annoying popups were the ones from /tripod sites - “free” hosting - those were the days! Good luck folks…
OMG UPDATE!: Here’s a copy of the kinds of emails that are luring people into this trap! Jesus…
Dear eBay member,
This is an automated message sent to you by eBay Billing Update.
We have recently tried to VeriCharge your credit or debit card we have on record for $0.01, and the charge was declined. The $0.01 charge is only to confirm that the credit or debit card that you submitted to eBay is current. The charge being declined was likely caused by your credit card being over its limit or that the account has been cancelled.
In order for us to keep your account open we need to verify the status of your credit or debit card. In furtherance all flagged accounts will be given a full 48 hours prior to eBay suspending your account. We thank you for your response and look forward to continuing to serve you.
Please click here to proceed to our secure 128 bit SSL encrypted billing server.
Yours sincerely,
Dave Meyers
eBay Billing Department