Bestest Blog of the Day: 10/25/2006

Scam Alert
Ok, I will admit it...I have been scammed on the internet. About a year ago, my wife and I received a message about our join eBay account. The jist of the message was "Someone is trying to hack your account...to protect it you should click this link and change your password." So, the first thing you think is "yikes, I'm being hacked!" The email, the email address, the link address, the actual website we were directed to...they all looked VERY official. So, we input our password, supposedly changed our old password and thought nothing of it.

Within 24 hours, someone had logged into our account and was selling some sort of high powered, super sonic, underwater microphone...a listing price of $2000 which carried a fee of $40. Now, this hacker was smart and I will give him credit for a valiant effort. First of all, he hacked our account shortly AFTER we had purchased something...hoping once our purchase was complete there would be a period of inactivity. Secondly, he listed the item for only 24 hours and directed potential buyers to contact him and pay him at a DIFFERENT email address than was listed with his account. If we (like many internet users) did not log in at all during that 24 hour period, he would've sold the item, got the payment, and we would've been stuck with the eBay fees. Luckily, we did find out, cancelled the auction and eBay was very helpful about getting our account back to normal.

If only I had read Jerome's blog before facing that ordeal. He posts the scam emails that he frequently gets sent, along with helpful tips on what to look out for, and funny comments about the stupid mistakes the scammer makes. He's received scams about internet auctions (apparently Canada is a city), a phony baloney lottery, a guy in need of a favor, a paypal phishing email (with some helpful comments about Gmail), and a fake job offer (for a company that doesn't exist!)

Jerome has done a great job educating, while at the same time entertaining (something I try to do everyday when teaching). So, check out Scam Alert before it's too late! And if anyone would like an invitation to join Gmail, please leave a comment with your email address and I'll send you one over.

Comments

LJP said…
My blog also has spam warnings and ebay scam information. It may help somewhat as I usually post them the day I receive the spam.
peanut butter said…
not to bug you Bobby, but my blog has changed to http://peanut-peanutbutterjelly2.blogspot.com


thanks
-Peanut-
Save Sheila said…
I just got one this morning about a British company that wants a "bookkeeper" in the US to process their money. New, but I didn't fall for it (even though I am in desperate need of money)!
Hey Bobby! I don't usually leave mean comments - but I left Jerome from Scam Alert a comment about his spelling. He seriously needs to use spell check if he wants to educate the world...
abovo99 said…
I got email regarding to my paypal account saying that message of changing passward, I made a call to paypal service. They said they had no knowledge of sending that message to me and they told me not to fill out any information whenever I received that kind of emails.
Reeholio said…
Better keep my wits about me for that one.

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