Tech: Pay Pal - A Caution

Subject: Tech: Pay Pal - A Caution
From: Gareth
Date: 03 Jul 03 - 07:15 PM

A CAUTION

I have recieved - via Hotmail - a request ostensibly from PayPal, a questionaire ostensibly asking for credit card and pass word and PIN to "confirm details".

This has come up previously, and been noted as an attempted fraud.

I have notified HOTMAIL - who don't seem to be taking matters that seriously - I asumne Bill Gates' details have not been supplied.

Basically - don't do it, and refer the E-Mail to your ISP/Mail Provider.

Gareth

Subject: RE: Tech: Pay Pal - A Caution
From: Bernard
Date: 03 Jul 03 - 07:33 PM

Yes, I've heard about this one -and PayPal are understandably a wee bit miffed about it.

Simple advice - never trust anyone who e-mails you to ask for credit card details, passwords, etc., unless you know in advance that it is required in connection with a genuine transaction.

People like PayPal only use 'Secure HTML' form scripts to request such information, and these scripts are designed so that another user of the same computer (if you are in a busy office, for example) cannot fraudulently reproduce the keystrokes used to enter them.

It is their policy never to discuss/divulge such information via e-mail.

Thanks for brining it to our attention, Gareth.

Subject: RE: Tech: Pay Pal - A Caution
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 04 Jul 03 - 05:15 AM

Pay Pal appears to be the most frequently "faked" site for this scam, but there have been reports of similar fake messages claiming to be from a number of other sites.

Amazon, MSN, EBay, Borders, and a fairly long list of web merchandise sites have reported complaints.

Obviously, if you provide the information requested, you can expect to have your account(s) "cleaned" immediately.

This is similar to the telephone scam where someone calls to tell you that your "payment is past due," and offers to debit your checking account to get it current "if you'll give them the account number." The favorite here is probably your gasoline credit card account, although telephone bills are also "hit" occasionally.

NEVER give any personal information to anyone who originates a contact. You have no way of verifying that they are "who they say the are." Hang up, disconnect, delete, and initiate your own connection (web, phone, or snail mail) with the people who claim to need information, if necessary.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: Pay Pal - A Caution
From: Mrs.Duck
Date: 08 Aug 03 - 01:20 PM

Having just sent something through to Mudcat I have received a similar e mail to the one above. Had it been sent to the e mail address I use for business correspondence I might have been fooled as all it requested was that I confirm recent transaction by entering my password. I didn't but did click on the link to the website it provided to see if it really was paypal. Again had I not been already warned of such scams I may have only given a cursory glance to the URL and thought it was correct but in fact it was https// instead of the usual http// almost everything else about the page looked genuine right down to the registered logo! The main difference was that where paypal have a clicky to a login page which opens in a new window (and presumably uses the encrypted security) this one had a space for e mail and password. They are frighteningly believable even have a little warning about not posting to fraudulent sites!!!

Subject: RE: Tech: Pay Pal - A Caution
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 09 Aug 03 - 11:04 AM

Just to emphasize the point The REAL paypal website address starts http://.
The website we assume must be a FAKE SCAM paypal website address starts https://. The rest of the web address is identical, and the FAKE(?) site looks almost identical to the real site - I presume that they have copied the web HTML source, plus any graphics from the original, but then altered the bits they hope you will insert your passwords and bank details into.
Try opening both in separate web windows and see how similar they look.
REAL (?) SITE http://www.paypal.com/
FAKE (?) SITE https://www.paypal.com/

Does anyone out there know anything about what is going on?
Quack!
Geoff the Duck.

Subject: RE: Tech: Pay Pal - A Caution
From: Jeri
Date: 09 Aug 03 - 12:05 PM

https - the 's' just means it's a secure server.
Go to the PayPal site you know is real and click on 'log-in' - the http changes to https. They BOTH appear to be bona fide PayPal sites.

They would have put the real website in so you wouldn't get suspicious and would e-mail them your password.

My opinion: website OK, e-mail not.

Subject: RE: Tech: Pay Pal - A Caution
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 09 Aug 03 - 03:29 PM

Geoff the Duck--Jeri is correct--you've simply identified two parts of the same site, the general access and the secure access.

Next time you get one of the emails asking you to send personal data, if you're curious, open the header and poke around. You'll find that there is a different reply address, even if it looks like it is going to paypal. It has been directed to show one address but interact with another.

SRS

Subject: RE: Tech: Pay Pal - A Caution
From: Bill D
Date: 09 Aug 03 - 09:20 PM

I, too, have received emails from PayPay and Ebay asking me to 'comfirm' my account...like this

"Dear Sir or Madam,

eBay Account Management regrets to inform you that your eBay account has been suspended due to credit card verification problems. Your credit card failed to authorize and as a result, your account has been flagged. All further transactions with your account will be denied until this flag is removed.

Please take a moment to confirm your account by going to the following address: eBay.com

Trully your, eBay account management team."

I LOVE that 'trully your'

sounds like the Nigerians are moving into new realms! And this was part of the headers.."Return-Path:

the funny thing is, I don't HAVE a PayPay account...and I have only registered at Ebay, and not ever used it!

This is a well layed out scheme...except the idiots are not clever enough to use a spell checker!

and in the headers, it says the message was sent by "X-Mailer: The Bat! (v1.61) Personal " ...which is a commercial email program which ebay would NEVER use!

read these things well, folks, anytime you are asked for personal data!

Subject: RE: Tech: Pay Pal - A Caution
From: mouldy
Date: 10 Aug 03 - 02:52 AM

I'm relieved to find that the https:// is legit, because I never even thought to look, having only just initiated the paypal a/c and made the first ever payment.

Oh well, I suppose I'd better check my account details to be sure...

Andrea

Subject: RE: Tech: Pay Pal - A Caution
From: mouldy
Date: 10 Aug 03 - 03:13 AM

Just checked. All looks ok (and they do state that they use the https:// for security). Anyway, I've changed my password to be on the safe side.

Andrea

Subject: RE: Tech: Pay Pal - A Caution
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 10 Aug 03 - 10:09 AM

Jeri and Stilly River Sage - Thanks for the information. I had wondered what the https was, and how there could be the same "address" on a different prefix.
One big problem with all this internet stuff is that they keep changing everything (sometimes due to the independent World Wide Web committee and sometimes because Microcrap have added extras to sbotage the opposition's browsers), but NOBODY actually tells US (the intelligent non-computer-expert) what the hell is going on.
In this case I look at a web address and realise that it is NOT STANDARD, so I am automatically 100% suspicious of it until someone supplies me with accurate information.
Quack!
GtD.

Subject: RE: Tech: Pay Pal - A Caution
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 10 Aug 03 - 10:27 AM

geoff, to explain a little further, it is the domain name, e.g. paypal.com, mudcat.org that points you to where a site is. The bit to the left of :// just gives the protocol. http (hypertext transfer protocol) is the usual one for web pages. https is using SSL (secure socket layer).

It's quite possible to have different servers/ phyisical machines on a domain, e.g. www.folkinfo.org, mail.folkinfo.org and ftp.folkinfo.org are all on different machines but they all come under the general setup of folkinfo.org.