BEWARE! It happened to me this morning!

[pEtAl mIsFiT]

I went in this morning & checked my e-mail. I noticed several paypal receipts from e-bay purchases. I am thinking what? I have not purchased anything? The emails look just like paypals. There was a place on the e-mail, if you dispute these charges click here button. When I went to dispute the charges, they asked me for my name, my address, my home/work telephone numbers, my ss#, my mothers maiden name, my banking info, my credit/or debit cards I have on my paypal acct. This was the big red flag. I went into my paypal acct, got the paypal # and called them. I find out that this was a scam to get my personal info. It is also called "Phishing". It happens on all types of accounts not just paypal. I just wanted to let you guys know who may not be aware of this, to be careful. Phising leads to identity theft.

[amanda]

Thanks for the warning! I'll be on the look out!

[Pop]

Phishers are thieves using very sophisticated lures to "fish" for personal and financial information. What the phishers hope to catch is account numbers, passwords, Social Security numbers and other confidential information. The phishers will use this personal information to access and loot the victim’s bank accounts or run up charges on their credit cards.
Here’s an example of how a typical phishing scam operates: The phisher sends out email that appears to come from the bank. The phony email will use the same logo and wording to look exactly like a communication from the bank or financial web site. The email says the bank needs to update or verify your account information. Sometimes the email will warn of a problem with your account that needs your immediate attention. The email instructs you to "click on this button or link" to go to the bank’s website.
Once you click, you are then directed to a phony website that looks exactly like the real thing. Sometimes, in fact, it may be the bank’s actual website. In those cases, a pop-up window will quickly appear for the purposes of harvesting your financial information. In either of the above two cases, you are asked to provide your Social Security Number, account number, passwords or other information for verification purposes. If you provide the information, you have given a phishing thief enough to access and take over your bank account. Do not reply to these emails If there is a problem call your bank directly on the phone and report the Phishing scam. Many banks have departments dedicated to research and prosecution.

[wilebill]

Yeah, I probably get one or two of these a week. The first red flag should be that they don't even put your real name on it. Hover your cursor over the link and it'll show you the real address, it'll be something totally different from paypal.com, but they'll stick paypal at the end of it somewhere (which just means they have a folder on their site named paypal).

[aaron]

IE7 (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/default.mspx), Firefox 2 (http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/), and the Google toolbar (http://toolbar.google.com/T4/) all assist in telling you whether they detect that a link is a phishing scheme or not. The amount of people that get fooled into these schemes is depressing.

[Conveyor Belt]

I remember in my younger days, some of my friends phishing on AOL... of course, in those days, they were just after passwords so they could stay on AOL longer... those were the pay per hour days of the internet. AOHell... anyone remember that one???

I get these about one a year from 'Ebay'. I've never gotten one from 'paypal', though. I always turn them in to Ebay just like they ask me to.

[pEtAl pUrr-Dog]

Glad you didnt just go through with putting any personal info on there, Misfit. We often get into routines, and in a hurry... glance at who the email is from, and just assume it's Legit. And I bet thats why alot of people fall for these things.
GOOD FOR YOU! and maybe this will keep someone else from falling for it too! :smt038

[daisy]

CNN just aired a special on this several times in the past week. They showed exactaly how people do this Phishing scam which prolly prompted even more scamers to try it. The crooks spam out millions of fake but real looking pages as you describe. They showed one created to look like it was an offical document from AOL.

No matter how official something looks, never, ever give out your SS# online, that was their bottomline.

As an aside: as I was looking into John McCain's Campaign Exploratory Committee membership, it ask for my SS# and I got the hell off that website. I emailed his regular contact address and ask why they are asking for SS# online, but have had no repy to date.

Hawkeye, let us know if you hear from them (McCain camp) please.

Thank you for letting others know of this and warning them.

Just for informationa and also an interesting site is the FBI home page that alerts us to scams aimed at the average citizen.

http://www.fbi.gov/

[pEtAl mIsFiT]

thanks for all your comments guys!!!!!!!!!!
I can easily see where someone can fall into this trap!

[Hermione]

My son, who is a computer security guy, won't email a SSN at all. when I needed his for something, he called and gave it to me.

[SouthChic]

Recognize phishing scams and fraudulent e-mails (http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/email/phishing.mspx)

[Pop]

My son, who is a computer security guy, won't email a SSN at all. when I needed his for something, he called and gave it to me.

In an interview with United States Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on Glenn Beck- I remember he stated that he did not have an email address, PERIOD. He knows that any thing put out here is able to come back and bite you in the _ _ _! He also implied, that no matter the security it could be had by some one motivated enough to get the information. He said if some one wanted him they could use a phone.