greg334
Veteran Expediter
I am posting this in the general forum just so I get the message out. If the modirators feel it needs to be move, go ahead.
-->Don’t give your personal information out to anyone.
As of today I have counted 95 different emails in my inbox from my main account and around 135 from my other mail accounts phishing for personal information. There is a big push with these emails the last few days.
Phishing for those who aren't internet savy phishing is explained better than I could ever so here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phishing
What they are saying in the email is that my account will be locked or that the information for my bank account is wrong or there is a security breach – all asking for personal information to confirm the information.
Out of the 95 emails in my inbox, I have 32 from eBay, 24 from Paypal, 15 from Western Union and 24 from different banks - all of which I don’t have accounts with any one of these banks. Everyone of these emails looks like a real email fomr one of those companies and ask me to click on a link to verify my personal info. Testing one of the eBay emails, I found that the server setup to receive the visit is rather good copy of eBay's even has copies of ceritan FAQ pages, but it is not real - that one is located in the Middle East.
Because I have a very personal relationship with eBay management due to a big fight with them a year ago, I do have some friends in high places there and Paypal too –I know my accounts are not being locked, etc.. Western Union I refuse to use – so I know that that one is not real and the banks, well got no accounts with any of them.
Paypal and eBay rarely locks accounts unless there is fraud involved and than with a lot of warning.
So what does this all mean – do not answer them, do not click on the link do not do anything but delete them. If you want to be sure, close you email and browser program and than go to the site (eBay.com, paypal.com or what ever .com) and log onto it as you would normally do to confirm you info or better yet CALL them with a number you know. Also I have to add that even if you have virus protection, these links do have ways of planting little viruses on your computer. My virus scan went off when the site it went to wanted to plant a trojan virus, but I was using one of my test machines so it didnt matter.
See many of these emails originate from locations in Africa and Middle East sometimes even Russia– not from eBay, Paypal and others. There is a trick that is used to make it look like the email came from eBay in the actall email header section when it actually came from someone’s server in Jordan or Iran or Nigeria or Russia all looking for your personal information. Most of these came from Nigeria from what I could trace back but a number of them came from the Middle East.
Shameless plug ahead –
just to add one more thing, viruses and phising are tools used by terrorist to fund activities. As part of my job for the consulting company a few years back I researched and wrote a paper whih was presented to a large group of security people (yes more friends in high places I might add) about outsourcing, terrorism and the consumer internet market.
-->Don’t give your personal information out to anyone.
As of today I have counted 95 different emails in my inbox from my main account and around 135 from my other mail accounts phishing for personal information. There is a big push with these emails the last few days.
Phishing for those who aren't internet savy phishing is explained better than I could ever so here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phishing
What they are saying in the email is that my account will be locked or that the information for my bank account is wrong or there is a security breach – all asking for personal information to confirm the information.
Out of the 95 emails in my inbox, I have 32 from eBay, 24 from Paypal, 15 from Western Union and 24 from different banks - all of which I don’t have accounts with any one of these banks. Everyone of these emails looks like a real email fomr one of those companies and ask me to click on a link to verify my personal info. Testing one of the eBay emails, I found that the server setup to receive the visit is rather good copy of eBay's even has copies of ceritan FAQ pages, but it is not real - that one is located in the Middle East.
Because I have a very personal relationship with eBay management due to a big fight with them a year ago, I do have some friends in high places there and Paypal too –I know my accounts are not being locked, etc.. Western Union I refuse to use – so I know that that one is not real and the banks, well got no accounts with any of them.
Paypal and eBay rarely locks accounts unless there is fraud involved and than with a lot of warning.
So what does this all mean – do not answer them, do not click on the link do not do anything but delete them. If you want to be sure, close you email and browser program and than go to the site (eBay.com, paypal.com or what ever .com) and log onto it as you would normally do to confirm you info or better yet CALL them with a number you know. Also I have to add that even if you have virus protection, these links do have ways of planting little viruses on your computer. My virus scan went off when the site it went to wanted to plant a trojan virus, but I was using one of my test machines so it didnt matter.
See many of these emails originate from locations in Africa and Middle East sometimes even Russia– not from eBay, Paypal and others. There is a trick that is used to make it look like the email came from eBay in the actall email header section when it actually came from someone’s server in Jordan or Iran or Nigeria or Russia all looking for your personal information. Most of these came from Nigeria from what I could trace back but a number of them came from the Middle East.
Shameless plug ahead –
just to add one more thing, viruses and phising are tools used by terrorist to fund activities. As part of my job for the consulting company a few years back I researched and wrote a paper whih was presented to a large group of security people (yes more friends in high places I might add) about outsourcing, terrorism and the consumer internet market.
