OT: eB*y Caution

[Greg Millen]

I received an email, at first glance from ebay, that I checked a little further. Since I have used ebay in the last few days I thought it may be legit but it is simply a trap for IDs etc.

It used these words amongst ebay graphics "Dear eBay Member, We regret to inform you that your eBay account has been suspended due to the violation of our site policy below: False or missing contact information - Falsifying or omitting your name, address, and/or telephone number (including use of fax machines pager numbers, modems or disconnected numbers). Due to the suspension of this account, please be advised you are prohibited from using eBay in any way. This prohibition includes the registering of a new account. Please note that any seller fees due to eBay will immediately become due and payable. eBay will charge any amounts you have not previously disputed to the billing method currently on "

First I checked my account still worked - it did. then I followed the link to see what it did - it jumped to a different site, finally I sent a copy to [e-mail].

Be careful out there.

[Mark and Kim Smith]

Just wait until you get them from Citibank, Washington Mutual, Paypal, and a bunch others. Just ignore them and send them right to the dumpster!

[Charlie Self]

I'm not sure those things are just address traps. I think they're looking for people stupid enough to give them card numbers or other ID. I have gotten such missives from outfits purporting to be Citibank and Suntrust. I don't have an EBay account, don't have a Citibank card or account of any kind, and don't do business with Suntrust (and never will) so they're fishing in sterile waters here, but I'd guess they do grab some info from a few people.

This kind of spammer should be tracked down relentlessly and prosecuted and imprisoned for a goodly number of years.

Charlie Self "Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in hospitals dying of nothing." Redd Foxx

[Ba r r y]

This was your first?

I get these daily.

Barry

[George]

[Larry Jaques]

On 20 Nov 2004 09:40:56 GMT, [e-mail] (Charlie Self) calmly ranted:

They're called "Phisher" emails, fishing for info to do identity theft.

No, print out a paper copy of each email to each sendee and return it to the sender via his lower orifice. Y'know, sorta like living taxidermy without the cleanout first. That'll teach 'em.

-- Friends Don't Let Friends Eat Turkey and Drive --

[Upscale]

I get a dozen of them a day. Recently, I've been receiving fake emails from Wamu.com down in the US asking me to logon on and confirm my account. The bank doesn't even exist in Canada. They're saying now that 80% of emails these days are spam of some type. I'm at the point where I'm torn between everybody having to a verifiable email address versus the confidentiality that exists now if one desires it.

[J. Clarke]

Personally I'd favor just requiring all ISPs to charge a penny a shot to transport an email from one of their customers and to block any mail transported by ISP that doesn't subscribe to that policy. Most customers can afford to pay that for their emails, while the spammers, if it wasn't free anymore, would have to at least target their lists a little.

[JeffB]

A tip-off that this e-mail is fradulent is right here. A legitimate email from a company will have your full name (that you registered with them). A legitimate message comes from people who know who you are, they will not address you as "Member"...

JeffB

[George]

If that were permitted, perhaps ISPs would introduce worms into e-mails themselves to collect on a remailing scam.

[igor]

[snip]

From Washington Post. Note especially in the last paragraph excerpted here: "She handed over her bank account number, Social Security number and her mother's maiden name -- the keys to her identity. " Whoa, Nellie!

For complete article (free reg required), click here:

Schemes Scar Victims

By Brian Krebs washingtonpost.com Staff Writer Thursday, November 18, 2004; 6:36 AM

Nancy Boyle woke up one morning last December to discover that someone had stolen $1,800 from her online bank account. Then came the $800 credit card charge for escort services that she and her husband Dan never ordered.

The Boyles, who run a window treatment business out of their home in Racine, Wis., were getting a crash course in phishing. The first e-mail appeared to come from Bank One, warning that Mrs. Boyle's account would be suspended unless she updated her information to conform with the company's new anti-fraud measures. She clicked on the link that came with the e-mail and entered the data on the Web site. Then the money disappeared from her account.

***Not long after that, she got another message that looked like it came from eBay. It warned of fraudulent activity on her account and urged her to verify her details. She handed over her bank account number, Social Security number and her mother's maiden name -- the keys to her identity.

[Greg Millen]

Well, let me say that I too get hundreds of similar spams every week. I think what nearly caught me on this one was I had just completed a transaction with ebay and was waiting for confirmation. Normally I don't download any more than the header.

[GregP]

You should assume that *every* such email is a fraud, regardless of how it is addressed, worded, etc, *unless* it is in response to something you did, such as an acknowledgement of a purchase you made.

[Bruce]

On Sat, 20 Nov 2004 12:33:24 -0700, George wrote (in article ):

I was bored one day and looked into one of the citibank scams. The ip address desguised as the link was somewhere in China. I went to it and the web page was so crude it didn't work, none of the pull downs functioned and most of the other links were broken. I doubt I could have given them my info if I wanted too!

-Bruce

[Fred the Red Shirt]

That would work great until you realize that there is no international organization with the authority to require that ISPs do that.

Although the US sends more spam than any other nation, China is not far behind and the rest of the world altogether sends more than the US alone.

Look down at the bottom of this page:

also that mci.com (formerly Worldcom) leads the US in spam support. They were also hosting a DDOS against Spamhaus for several months, perhaps they still are. It is not hard for folks with a little bit of internet savy to find where the spammers are hosted. It is extremely hard to get the ISPs to terminate their accounts.

[Fred the Red Shirt]

That would work great until you realize that there is no international organization with the authority to require that ISPs do that.

Although the US sends more spam than any other nation, China is not far behind and the rest of the world altogether sends more than the US alone.

Look down at the bottom of this page:

also that mci.com (formerly Worldcom) leads the US in spam support. They were also hosting a DDOS against Spamhaus for several months, perhaps they still are. It is not hard for folks with a little bit of internet savy to find where the spammers are hosted. It is extremely hard to get the ISPs to terminate their accounts.

[Fred the Red Shirt]

They are not.

They are. In addition to cash advances fraudulent purchases and other basic identity theft crimes spammers also use phished credit cards to open throwaway accounts from which they spam.

Supposedly Al Qaida and others raise money through identity theft types of cyber-crime, internet sales of bootleg software and knockoffs through front companies etc.