For those who buy/sell at eBay

[toaster]

I've had to notify eBay through their spoof@ebay.com email contact of several attempts by unauthorized parties trying to fool me into confirming credit card info. These theives steal the official look of a web page and then try to get passwords, SSN#'s, etc. by saying that ebay needs to update your account.

One way to tell that the email you got is phony is that the secure web site icon is missing from their phony page.

Never give that info out, follow the instructions of confirming official correspondence that ebay has in their help section. Ebay tells you that they never will ask for that information and that you should never provide it because of the unscrupulous tactics used by identity theives.

[Serotta PETE]

No matter what site is requesting, this is good info not to give to anyone.

[coylifut]

I've seen an alarming increase in these types of "fishing" scams of late. I actually know an elderly person who fell for it. The fallout has been quite frightening

[Bruce K]

I got one yesterday supposedly from Citibank concerning one of my credit cards and some "suspicious activity".

Since I never gave my e-mail to Citibank the alarms went off.

Turns out it was a scam that Citi is in the process of tracking down.

BEWARE.

BK

[Russ]

Are from Citibank, SunTrust Bank, and eBay... In my opinion, if any institution wants to "verify or update" my information, they are going to have to call me and leave a phone where I could call back, or write me on official letterhead which I could verify.

Last week I got about three fake messages (phishing, in hacker's term) from Citibank. I never even open the messages, I just delete them...

[Don]

Last week, both my wife and I received "verification requests" from Sun Trust. Be careful out there!

[BumbleBeeDave]

. . . about the phone calls. Somebody tried to use my Master Card number to buy some stuff online some months back and both vendors called me after getting my number from an Internet search. Both left callback numbers and both explained that they have software that alerts them when suspicous purchase patterns show up and both wanted to verify that it was really me that ordered this merchandise before they shipped it.

Of course, it wasn’t me, and they did not ship, did not charge me, and alerted me to call my bank to get the card changed.

BBDave

[Frank]

but I never reported it because the thief spent far less money than she did!

Just kidding ;)

[bostondrunk]

but I never reported it because the thief spent far less money than she did!

Just kidding ;)

Reminds me of a former boss of mine, that told me that he always left his credit cards maxed out because the interest he paid on them was less than he would have to pay than if he paid them off and let his wife continue to rack them up...

[bulliedawg]

Reminds me of a former boss of mine, that told me that he always left his credit cards maxed out because the interest he paid on them was less than he would have to pay than if he paid them off and let his wife continue to rack them up...

Now that's pathetic.

[Orin]

Are from Citibank, SunTrust Bank, and eBay... In my opinion, if any institution wants to "verify or update" my information, they are going to have to call me and leave a phone where I could call back, or write me on official letterhead which I could verify.


I won't give such information out unless I originate the call to a number that I can verify...

From a recent conversation with a bank when they suspected fraud on my account (it wasn't fraud, just an internet transaction with an out of state company). They'd left a message, I'd called back and got an automated system that started asking for too much personal information. I did whatever to get a real person...

Me: "Your automated system started asking for too much personal information".

Them: "Right, you don't know who I am."

We then went through a little exchange where we exchanged enough information to convince each other who we were - something like he tells me the day of the month of my birthday, I tell him the month, information that wouldn't have been in the transaction that triggered the fraud alert.

It's best in such cases to take the customer service number from the back of the credit card and call that - or for the bank information scams, a number from the bank's statement.

Orin.

[MartyE]

I've been getting about 1 phishing message a week reporting to
be from paypal, requesting an update to my account information.
The linked site was from a domain in Romania.
I forwarded it to Paypal and they confirmed it was a phishing attempt.
One thing that they said was that any correspondence from them
would address you by first/last name or business name on account.
Phishing does not have this.
Also always log into secure server https://

Marty