A 'phishing' e-mail

This is a duplicate of a post I put in my New Member thread, after which it occurred to me that I should have posted it as a new thread with appropiate title.

I'll try to do better next time.

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Thought I mention this FYI.

Today I received a 'phishing' e-mail via my secretcodebreaker addy. A coincidence? I put this e-mail addy in my profile just yesterday.

Although I have this addy on my website (coded so spambot web crawlers don't find it - although I hear that they have figured out this ploy) I rarely get any Spam at this address and all of it has been from a outfit touting stock. As I can recall, never any 'phishing'

It was a fake PayPal transaction. Said I had just purchased a Dell computer and had a hot link labeled CANCEL TRANSACTION that took me to * REMOVED URL * which had a pretty authentic looking PayPal Log In page.

Any other members experience this?

I'm not complaining nor accusing anyone on the staff. I realize that putting an e-mail addy in a public profile is a risk, of sorts.

For me this Spam stuff is but a small irritant. Sort of a 'cost of using the Internet.' But I thought I'd let the members of this forum know, in case they might get one.

 

Very annoying? Yes, however they should pose no major problem to those that are educated on some of the basics, which among others, include (as MA says) NEVER accessing your eBay, Paypal or whatever account, from supplied email links.
As you have seen, some of these fake websites look almost perfect but there are giveaways if you know what to look for. ie notice the site address you were taken too....(edit: sorry just noticed that!)
Could you pick the giveaway?
paypa (close but not quite, and easy to miss)

You can report this matter to Paypal here
https://www.paypal.com/au/ewf/f=pps_spf

Regards.....

 

seems the more hi tech you go...the greater the possibilities for problems. i am fighting the trend, but it becomes impossible when stuff only lasts for a couple of years. both in software and hardware. i do not have a paypal. i do not access or pay bills on line, or buy anything...(but i cheat and make hubby use his paypal), i try to keep my phone simple..but it all gets harder. the spam thing is getting beyond a simple irritation. i can see the whole system collapsing because eventually all there will be are viruses/unknown connections/too much information mixed with malice. its all rather odd when looked at in terms of an accessory. jmho. aloha and welcome

 

The thing I worry about (and never click unknown websites because of it) is you never can tell what you are installing by doing so. A keyboard logger could be disasterous for me, as I do a lot of online shopping.

Both paypal and eBay fraud notice email sites are on my favorites lists.

 

I was a little surprised by the responses.

I've been using the Internet since 1982 (or was it 1980?) and in that time I have only received two viruses, which my AVG quarantined and removed. My Spam e-mail has gone from twenty or so daily (when I was an AOL user) to about one per week. Same for my wife, although you can probably count on your fingers the average number of minutes she is on-line every day. I don't use any of the Internet software that comes installed on the 10 or so PCs I've purchased since leaving AOL.

I've been assuming that my ISP is filtering 99% of the Spam long before my Inbox on the ISP server even gets to see them, since I rarely even get any in my ISP Spam mailbox. I have six (6) active e-mail accounts, some I have had for years (on domains that I own). Three of them have never received any Spam.

As for downloads, I probably download an executable file (or zip with one in it) on average twice a month. Never got anything nasty. I download media all the time.

I've come to believe that the ISPs and major players on the Internet had gotten the Spam thing under control, at least for the last mile (local server to my house). Boy, am I unconscious.

I have a Kerio firewall. Since I only have a dial-up connection. 56 Kb is fast enough for me - I don't mind waiting 3 minutes per meg for downloads. I probably don't really need a firewall.

I know (from reading BusinessWeek - while I'm waiting on a download) that 53% of the Internet traffic is considered Spam and that it's a problem from a capacity point, but I thought the foreign based hacker, stealing credit card numbers and collecting 'per-click' payments was a bigger threat to the functioning of the Internet. If the advertisers decide to leave, that would probably cause a 'collapse.'

The biggest problem I have, if you can call it that, is the 3 or 4 media player programs I use that want to 'call home' all the time. That is irritating!

 

Hello!

I've been a member of this forum for a few years and never had that problem. Granted, I don't have my email in my profile, only pm. I have however registered with a valid email addy, and I assume the mods and admins could if they wanted to, check what that addy is, in the admin panel.

I have not noticed anything like this though. I have to say, I have complete confidence and trust in the team behind this forum.

As you know though, there are many ways your email addy can be picked up... After I purchased on Amazon for the first time, suddenly my spambox increased 10-fold. They claimed my email was secure with them, and that it must be another reason. They are probably right, but I have no way of checking it..

Being on dialup, spam is a hell of a lot more irritating than when on broadband, as it slows down the already slow sessions... I do however think you should consider a firewall. If you are on XP, you have a built in one, that doesn't drain your resources. It is better than nothing, and would be sufficient for your needs.

 

As do I. I would not have joined if I didn't.

As I said, I am using a Kerio firewall. As for stopping dial-outs, Windoze XP is useless (IMHO).

I also believe using Firefox (Mozilla) instead of I.E. and Download Express (MetaProducts) keeps me out of a lot more trouble than by using the XP firewall.

 

Oops, my bad, sloppy reading from my part there!

I agree with you both about the xp firewall and about Firefox. The xp firewall is ok to prevent things coming IN, but if something gets by it and wants to go OUT, it sucks.

At work, many of my co-workers are computer illiterate, and I sat next to one of them as she recieved her very first spam mail! She read it very carefully, it was one of those emails about helping someone with banking details, and she wondered why someone asked her that question... She was very surprised when I told her, that from now on, she could expect more, since someone had snooped out her email addy...

Funny thing you mentioned btw, that spam email decreased over time, I experienced the same on my yahoo addy, to my great joy! Comes and goes in waves though, can be quiet for a month, and then more for a while again.

 

I'm with Solange on the Yahoo mail spam. It really does come and go. Going through a real spammy phase right now, but a couple of months back I barely got one. It really does fluctuate.

I find it helps computer illiterate co-workers to understand "spam" and how easy it is to get their email addy if you use the home address and paper spam analogy. Really, it is no different, except electronic. Very easy to get someone's home address nowadays, and all those shopping surveys analysing what you do and where are the keyloggers and malware. You even get the "complete this survey and get a free oil/filter change" kinda crap in the mail too.

SSDD