Phishing Feeds Internet Black Markets (fake Internet sites take your personal info, bankruptcy)

Wash Post ^ | 11/18/04 | Brian Krebs

[Cableguy]

William Jackson never thought he would be grateful for going bankrupt.

Nine months ago, the 44-year-old resident of Katy, Texas, got an e-mail message from what appeared to be eBay's PayPal online payment division. It warned him that his account would be suspended unless he updated it with his personal financial data. The e-mail directed Jackson to a Web site that looked like PayPal's. He keyed in his checking, credit card, bank routing and Social Security numbers, his birthday, his mother's maiden name and the personal identification number for his bank card.

The Web site was a fake. Within a week, the people who created it used Jackson's data to steal $200 from his PayPal account and run up $1,000 in credit card charges.

Jackson cleared up the problem with his bank after two months, and a short while later the activity ceased. But late this summer, his car insurance company sent him a letter rejecting an application for a $30,000 car loan that he never requested.

The only thing that stopped this latest attempt to use Jackson's identity was the 1997 bankruptcy filing that he and his wife made after the military base where he was stationed closed and his civilian job left them with a hefty pay cut in the face of mounting debt.

"Basically every piece of personal data about me had been compromised," Jackson said. "It's pretty simple to get another credit card number and [e-mail] address and switch banks, but what do you do when these guys know the stuff that doesn't change?"

[John Lenin]

Yea I read what you said, you called people idiots. Not everyone is wise to dangers of opening up emails and have their lives turned upside down by the ripoff artists on the net. Calling innocent people idiots is pretty low.

[norwaypinesavage]

"What do you do when these guys know the stuff that doesn't change?"

You put in a request to the three credit reporting agencies to notify you before approving any new credit of any kind.

[MineralMan]

"Yea I read what you said, you called people idiots. Not everyone is wise to dangers of opening up emails and have their lives turned upside down by the ripoff artists on the net. Calling innocent people idiots is pretty low."

They are idiots. Information about how to avoid these phishers has been widely disseminated, not only on the web, but by emails from eBay, PayPal and other organizations which are abused in this way.

Only an idiot does not learn when told not to do something that is dangerous. If you are a PayPal customer, you have been warned repeatedly about these scams. Same for eBay.

Unless you never bother to read anything, you cannot have missed this stuff.

If I tell a person that it's dangerous to stick your arm down a chipping machine to clear a clog, then that person goes right ahead and sticks his arm down the chipping machine, then that person is an idiot. This is no different. Not in any way.

You don't like it? OK. That does not change the fact.

[Maigret]

He deserves what he got. Dumbasses get no sympathy from me.

What? You want people to actually be responsible for what they do? To not be idiots?

Sounds good to me, I've gotten numerous emails like this purporting to be from PayPal, Citibank, etc., and all you do is forward them to the company the claim they are from - i.e. spoof@paypal.com - and in minutes you'll get back a confirmation that yes indeed it is a fake site.

[MineralMan]

"What? You want people to actually be responsible for what they do? To not be idiots? "

Be careful, there's a John Lenin on here who's going to take you to task for calling idiots what they are.

[Retired Chemist]

I've had dozens of these fake emails from ebay, Citibank and others.

[MineralMan]

"I've had dozens of these fake emails from ebay, Citibank and others."

But, see, you're not an idiot, so you don't fall for these phishing expeditions. Most people aren't idiots, either, so they don't fall for them.

The guy in this story did fall for one, despite being a PayPal customer and seeing the almost constant warnings from PayPal that you shouldn't trust mail coming from PayPal that wants you to give up your info. So, this guy is an idiot. He was warned, since he's a PayPal customer. He ignored the warnings, and got stung.

[Safetgiver]

ERECtile dysfunction? I was wondering why someone wanted me to give me a snake with psychoses!

[Luke21]

I get about five a week from Ebay impersonators. I just shuttle them over to spoof@ebay.com.

I did have to change my screenname because Ebay said it was getting me too many of those things. Can't see where it's made a lot of difference. These scammers are really creative though. They are really brazen .

[holymoly]

I almost got a virus from an American site that was selling Japanese kitchen knives of all things.

Using Microsoft Internet Explorer?

Try Mozilla/Firefox or Off By One (Very fast, very small, no disk cache, no java, no plugins, and it's free.)

[holymoly]

I almost got a virus from an American site that was selling Japanese kitchen knives of all things.

Using Microsoft Internet Explorer?

Try Mozilla/Firefox or Off By One (Very fast, very small, no disk cache, no java, no plugins, and it's free.)

[holymoly]

I did NOT post this twice.

[Rebelbase]

I get those Citibank ones also. And Suntrust.

[garyhope]

Yes, I can't imagine why they would send something like that to me. Well, maybe my ex-wife put them onto me. She's such a liar. (G)

[NY Attitude]

This problem of scamming people out of their money is not just isolated to email. I received a notification through the US Mail to pay a bill from a credit collection company. I called the credit collection company and they said just pay the money or else your credit rating will suffer. I asked where the bill came from, the person stated that it came from one of the larger banks in America. I went to the bank and inquired about it and they said no such thing exists within their databases. I told the bank that I am treating it as a hoax. However, the bank did give me the number for the government ID theft department.

Be watchful of the Internet and now US mail requests for information and money.

[Never2baCrat]

The following is a link to the "Jeff Levy radio show" advising how to help yourself when it comes to spam messages.
http://www.jefflevy.com/Lessons/Lesson%20349b.pdf

[NY Attitude]

Thanks.

[Xenalyte]

That's why BugMeNot.com was invented.

[bpjam]

A public execution of a serial spammer or one of these fraudster would do the public a world of good. I think we can make at least one acception to the death penalty to include a perp who defrauds more than 1000 people.

We could even let Kevorkian do the honors and let Donohue cover it live with Geraldo show. Or maybe force them to go to Fallujah and fight their way back home to the US.

I feel no sympathy for these social pariahs. They deserve whatever they get because they could care less about the rest of us.

[Xenalyte]

Even my sainted old mom has forwarded malware to me by mistake. Trust no one.

I feel your pain . . . my mother will NOT leave AOL. She calls me about twice a week to bitch about it and ask me to come fix it, and I finally had to come out and tell her in words of one syllable that a) I do not know anything about AOL's workings, and b) I do not intend to learn, because c) here insert everything I've ever told her about AOL, which apparently wasn't coming out of my mouth in English, for all the effect it had.