Have you been a victim of Online Fraud?

[JonnySpam]

I recieved an email a month ago, which said my card number had changed and could i email them my current card number and pin to them. I give them 1 out of 10 for being bothered to email it. I don't think anyone in their right mind would fall for that, apart from homestarrunner on www.homestarrunner.com It's under strongbad emails well funny

Seriously though i know people where i work that swear against any form of online purchasing, but personally i've never had any problems and shall continue to do so for as long as they beat high street prices.

 

[JonnySpam]

I'll make it easier for you http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail12.html you'll laugh

 

[Alf]

Ahh, yes... Homestarruner.com has always been a favorite of mine.

 

[old men and gadgets]

I bought some Harman Kardon soundsticks from an eBay auction. The arcehole selling them, hadn't actually bought them himself, and they were still in America. I notified eBay and PayPal, cos, fool me, paid immediately. The excuses became more and more futile. He plugged them in to an English trafo, thus BLOWING them UP. Eventually, after 2 months of lying and broken promises, the seller offered me a refund. This he didn't honour. I got in touch with my Bank, and they were able to actually reverse the payment. Thank you HSBC. Otherwise I would have lost £113.60
Good tip >>>> http://www.met.police.uk/fraudalert/cashback_fraud.htm
regards,
Rob O.M.A.G.

 

[psd99]

I bought some Harman Kardon soundsticks from an eBay auction. The arcehole selling them, hadn't actually bought them himself, and they were still in America. I notified eBay and PayPal, cos, fool me, paid immediately. The excuses became more and more futile. He plugged them in to an English trafo, thus BLOWING them UP. Eventually, after 2 months of lying and broken promises, the seller offered me a refund. This he didn't honour. I got in touch with my Bank, and they were able to actually reverse the payment. Thank you HSBC. Otherwise I would have lost £113.60
Good tip >>>> http://www.met.police.uk/fraudalert/cashback_fraud.htm
regards,
Rob O.M.A.G.

damn sorry to hear this!
im very cautious on ebay, always have been!

 

[Aidan]

1 sent msg gives me your ip, address, name, telephone number, properties and things owned. where you've lived and for how long. your entire family trees info if you wanted to puch it that far.

*Yawn* - I hear this rubbish far too often. Feel free - The IP address I'm currently on is 217.59.58.231. It's in Italy, provided by Telecomitalia (an ISP).

Most messengers don't do direct connections unless explicitly requested, instead passing data through the messenger servers to get to their destination.

No, I haven't been victim to online fraud. However, I know of plenty of people who have been victim to offline fraud, which is arguably far easier to do.

 

[Daniel1970]

We have been victims of a british company names ECS UK / SCANDORDER ( eCommerce Services UK)

They processed the credit card purchases of our customers. And They never paid to us the money collected with their services.

They have come up with several excuses to avoid paying what we have worked and earned.

If you ever need a credit card processor or a gateway, NEVER use them because you may end up like us.

 

[BaseLine9]

I have been lucky and not yet fallen victim to fraud over the internet, but after reading this thread i'm going to take much more care in the future, learnt some interesting info, thanks all

To touch on firewall and virus info as some of us have here, i believe anyone who has not got a hardware firewall, go bye one, only about £15 and there worth it! My tip for the day!

 

[oilnetcom]

I had an e-mail sent to me from our company account provider. It looked authentic, but I figured I'd phone the provider to confirm - it was not legitimate. Sent the e-mail to them and they took care of it from there.

I always open in a new browser and type the url, then I sweep the comp after the transaction.

A.

 

[fozzie22]

No thankfully i've been lucky,i just buy from well recomended sites that people i know have used and hope for the best

 

[big_d_west]

I was a victim of online fraud through Paypal! It sucks I have always tried to be so careful. Never except money from unverified paypal users and even then, if you can, dont use paypal. They are always on the buyers side, they didnt even bother to explain properly what had happened they pretty much just took the money from my account.

 

[Taino]

Bad moon a-rising

I have not suffered this modern indignation yet, knock on wood. However, this year in the states so far I have seen three cases in the news of hacked credit card information. The biggest effected 40M card holders. Then by snail mail I have been informed of hacked systems in my University, lunch café, and Mortgage Company. The odds seem to be against us at this rate. One company here had a database they were not entitled to have. Yes it was hacked, and when questioned about the DB they said they were doing research on it. Fortunately they were vigorously scolded, for their actions.
I see a bigger tragedy coming then the savings and loan scandal of the 80’s IMHO.

 

[cirianz]

Ebay 'security notice'

Just in case anyone else runs into it, a couple of weeks ago my daughter recieved a security notice supposedly from ebay. It noted some difficulties with her secure information & requested that she got to this page (link provided) & update all of her information or her account would be stopped in 2 weeks time. Usual sort of routine & the page was very well done, looked 100% legit except that several of the 'links' in the notice warning about internet fraud were faked. Other links took you directly to some of ebays own pages. It was well crafted, if not for the fact that my 12yo daughter doesn't have an ebay account I might've been fooled. I reported it to ebay, dunno if they did anything about it though.

Can't help wondering where they got my daughter's email address & name from though? Neither her email address or her online ID's include her name. I do know that one of her online ID's is much older than her actual age (She used to give web design advice & run a blog under it) but she has dropped that now to concentrate on her graphics work so it's unlikely that someone would encounter her in that way & believe her to be old enough to have an ebay account. Worrying, to say the least .

 

[gabriella]

Hi

I have had LOADS of these emails from 'ebay'. Rightly or wrongly I have designated them all to my spam folder as they remind me distinctly of those spoof emails from banks and building socities that ask for your personal details because they are 'updating their database' (or whatever....). I have thought for sometime that they are spoofs and to be honest I don't even know whether I have an ebay account - might have.

Gabs xx

 

[CITech]

A bit of luck

They got me once!

So far as I can make out from one of my providers, their office got broken into and data physically stolen. Within a few days a new entity was set up with a name very close to my genuine provider and then charges started to appear on my credit card.

It would appear that no amount of electronic protection or technical awareness would have helped in this case, as it was suggested by the provider that paper-based records had been stolen, not digital.

They were very good about it, and refunded the charges immediately (in conjunction with my credit card issuer), changed all my details immediately, and provided me with a free period of service as compensation for "me being inconvenienced by their problem".

From what I gather tho' most people aren't his lucky. I see from the TV that they are uping the Identity Fraud issue. Some people have no idea of how much information can be extracted from a dustbin, never mind introducing them to the idea of social-engineering!

 

[CITech]

Just a thought

Hi

I have had LOADS of these emails from 'ebay'. Rightly or wrongly I have designated them all to my spam folder as they remind me distinctly of those spoof emails from banks and building socities that ask for your personal details because they are 'updating their database' (or whatever....). I have thought for sometime that they are spoofs and to be honest I don't even know whether I have an ebay account - might have.

Gabs xx

One bit of advice I was once given about these sorts of things is as follows:

(1) If someone is writing to you about an account you hold with them, they should be addressing you as "Dear Mr ?", not as "Dear Customer".
(2) They should know you e-mail address, and use only one. The "To" box in the e-mail header shouldn't contain the names of several other "customers" on the same ISP.
(3) The message should not contain the padlock symbol. That should be applied only once you visit any website. Also it should only appear in the bottom right-hand corner of your browser.

These may seem very simple things, and may not always be correct, but it should be enough to perhaps raise a question of doubt in your mind.

Has anyone else got any simple pointers that pehaps less techy-aware people might find useful? Indeed, would it be an idea to setup a help page, given that this is an increasing issue?

Thoughts would be welcomed.

 

[floppybootstomp]

I get those 'e-bay' spams once every few days or so.

I'm using free version of Mailwasher, which bounces 'em straight back.

Annoying.

 

[cirianz]

One bit of advice I was once given about these sorts of things is as follows:

(1) If someone is writing to you about an account you hold with them, they should be addressing you as "Dear Mr ?", not as "Dear Customer".
(2) They should know you e-mail address, and use only one. The "To" box in the e-mail header shouldn't contain the names of several other "customers" on the same ISP.
(3) The message should not contain the padlock symbol. That should be applied only once you visit any website. Also it should only appear in the bottom right-hand corner of your browser.

These may seem very simple things, and may not always be correct, but it should be enough to perhaps raise a question of doubt in your mind.

Has anyone else got any simple pointers that pehaps less techy-aware people might find useful? Indeed, would it be an idea to setup a help page, given that this is an increasing issue?

Thoughts would be welcomed.

The thing that scared me was that it was addressed to my Daughter by name & using her email address (obviously) but it definitely wasn't ebay.

Oh, & the padlock sign appears on the top right hand corner if you use the safari browser.

 

[PotGuy]

be VERY careful on ebay

over the last 2 years i have had 130+ private transactions, and only 2 have not been successful, the latter giving an immediate refund when i had not recieved it after 2 weeks.

however i very nearly lost £110 when the slimline ps2 first came out and i ordered one for a reasonable, but not exceptional price. Of course in my ignoranace i thought as the price was not dirt cheap or sky high this would not be a scam. To give you an idea of this seller:

He had 700 positive feedbacks
Squaretrade certified
100% positives in 700 transactions

He had a listing of 10 slimline ps2 , which sold out after about 2 hours. After collecting his £1100 from the buyers, he cancelled his ebay account and did a runner. He replied immediately to all my emails and always had another excuse, and his last excuse i recieved was that his mum was inhospital and he had given it too her to play on in hospital and would send me it when she had finished...

He also gave me 3 fake tracking numbers and a fake phone number

Paypal managed to get £79 back after 2 months, however i am not sure how many of the other 9 buyers got money from him in the end.

 

[kingnathski88]

I get loads of the spoof e-mails about my ebay account, and mine was actually hacked into, in all honesty ebay were not helpful and i only managed to get my account blocked.