Fraudulent Email received today, WARNING

Same sort of e-mail supposedly from Paypal asking you to reactivate a suspended account is going around.

Just a note, banks will never ask you to verify your information in this way.

If you aren't sure, always enter a fake id and fake password, if it takes it, you know it was a scam.

I have gotten literally dozens of these over the years from various banks, mostly banks I don't even have accounts with - sometimes banks I do.

Recently I got one from Wachovia, which as you probably know is part of the big financial meltdown and was bought by citibank i think. Talk about taking advantage of people in a time of fear.

I don't know how people like that can sleep at night.

good technique. sometimes I use some nasty obscenity as user name, and insult as password.

I do that for my real accounts....

lol kyle

I read that a good security approach to the "secret questions" that a lot of sites use is to use fake answers. People could find out your home town easily for example, but if you put "Mars" noone could guess it. Your mother's maiden name could be "Flintstone" and so on.

Sarah Palin could have used this advice. (The hacker who got into her yahoo account figured out her password.)

I've received several of these types of fraudulent scam emails. I usually ignore and delete them. However one mailing purported to come from the bank that I do business with. Called my local officer and arranged to forward the entire message to the bank's security officers. Don't know wether this was a help to trace the scammer, but I've not received further scam spam supposedly originating from that same institution.

Actually a bad idea to follow the link even if you're going to do a fake ID/pwd. Some of those emails can be to "drive-by download" sites for recruiting PCs into zombie bot-nets, rather than phishing for logins. Even using Firefox, there is the slight possibility of zero-day exploits that haven't been protected against, and if your default browser is IE, it's even more risky to go to the site.

In fact that's a really good reason why you should not even have the Preview Pane of your email program enabled. Instead you should have it so that you do not see any of the message unless you choose to open it. Given that the Preview Pane uses the associated browser technology (subset of Firefox, the Gecko engine, for Thunderbird, or your actual installation of IE for Outlook, or Outlook Express), there's a slight risk from even previewing a suspect message if it's in HTML and that message's own HTLM references a malware site.

A somewhat safer, though technobabble-laden, way of checking if the email is legit, is to view the raw source of the email. If you're using Mozilla Thunderbird email (shared codebase with Firefox, SeaMonkey suite, etc.) then you can highlight the message in your message list but don't doubleclick or press enter to open it! Then press Control-U (or choose View and them Message Source from the Thunderbird menu.

With the source open, you'll see all the technical headers, including lines like "Received: " followed by IP addresses and the site names they refer to. Often the phishing and malware emails will show addresses from Russia (.ru), China (.cn) and other countries where your bank is not located, and the message body will show the actual addresses where a link like "Wells Fargo Secure Login" is going which might be like "secure.wellsfargo.com.ripyouoff.reallyinromania.i mabadguy.ro"

If you're using Windows' default Outlook Express (or in Vista do they just call it Windows Mail now?) then that's just crazy (IMHO) when Thunderbird is much safer and much more flexible. I've had OE disabled for so many years I don't quite recall how to view the message raw text source, but there is a way to do it.

If you're using the full version of Outlook for personal email accounts IMHO that's plain crazy too, because Outlook is optimized for internal corporate email systems with shared calendars, where it shines. It blows chunks in terms of usability for personal POP or IMAP mail accounts. There used to be a way to view raw message source in the full Outlook program, only for Internet Mail, but it was from the Options menu of the message (not the Options menu of the Outlook program window) and I don't know if it's still there.

or just dump the pc and use a mac!

Yeah and if you get an email from Bernanke or Paulsen, delete it IMMEDIATELY. They just want money

NEVER click on any links that you are not sure about

just that alone can cause endless grief.there are now even hidden links embedded in pages.

also,disable html for all emails and only enable it on an individual basis.its dangerous.

i also use no-script with firefox. look it up

I have recived many e-Mails like that

Even for Banks where I do not have an account.

A bank will never send an E-Mail like that.

On another Note I wanted to put out a kudo to Wells Fargo.

I do my banking with Wells Fargo, They are not perfect but they made me very happy a few weeks ago.

I got off work and was rushing Downtown to meet yp and enjoy Street Vibrations.
I stopped at the Wells Fargo ATM to get some cash.

I was chatting with someone while using ATM

Put in card, enter Pin press the quick button 300$

Card comes out, I grab my card shove it in my pocket and walk back to the car.

Get to the Bar, order drinks, reach in pocket for money (NO CASH)

Then I remember did not get CASH from ATM machine (Walked away and left it there)

So from the Bar I call Wells Fargo, Teller goers to check if money was turned in?

NOPE, she gives me an ATM number and tells me to call another 800 number

I explain what I did.

Dude at Wells Fargo says no problem.

Say they will review Tape at the ATM of me using the ATM

Says if you did not reach down and take the money from the Machine (The transaction was not complete (If you did not receive money) WE WILL CREDIT YOUR ACCOUNT

WOW so The following Wednesday 300$ is put bank into my checking account.

I never expected an easy positive result for such a bone head move.

Maybe all banks would do this?

BUT THANK YOU Wells Fargo for such a positive experience after such a bone head action

...welcome to the last 8 years or so? 'Phishing' scams are hardly new (but it's never a bad idea to remind people about them).

Just wanted to add one more thing: how/where to report these. First, you need to set your email program to 'show all headers' (so you can see all the technical junk that describes how the email got to you). Then forward the email (with all the headers showing) to 'abuse@<insert domain name here>' at your email provider's domain, the domain of the bank/company that is being misrepresented, and the domain of the ISP that the email seems to have come from originally. (Somewhere in those headers should be a bunch of 'received-from' information tracing which ISPs forwarded the email. You want the EARLIEST entry.)

So if you have an email account with, say, Comcast, and got a fraudulent email from someone claiming to be Wells Fargo, and it came from an account at AOL, you should send copies to 'abuse@comcast.net', 'abuse@wellsfargo.com', and 'abuse@aol.com'.

If you're using a webmail client, many have a 'report spam' link -- this should do something similar, but you should still ideally forward it to the other companies involved.

Most newer email programs (including newer versions of Outlook) won't follow links or download images from unknown senders by default, even if you open the email. Of course, that may not help people who say "oh, an email from my bank! I'd better at least download the images..."

Last month my Imac caught a nasty piece of malware that basically froze the internet on every browser I tried. I got rid of it, but the source of the repair said that a likely source was a Youtube movie -- and the only ones I ever watch are on posts on Epicski.

really? can you direct me to some info on this, I want to make sure I didn't get it to.

Unless I'm making a withdrawal, why would I confirm my identity to my bank? What reason do they give for asking? I never get those emails. Anyway, thanks for the heads up.

i get like 10 of those emails a day. most of the rest are of the 'make penis fast' variety.

Here's the article about youtube spoofs. When I find the article about the detection and fix of the malware, I'll post it here.

The fix for my trojan horse problem appeared at Macfixit.com on 9/25, but I'm not a subscriber there so I can no longer access it and forward it.

They are usually of the form "This is an extremely important, very official message from <insert name of bank here>. For security reasons, we need you to go to our website RIGHT NOW and verify your identity by entering your account information. Please click here: <link to fake website>"

Clicking the link takes you to a very authentic-looking copy of your bank's account login screen, where you are prompted to enter all sorts of personal information, your account number, etc...

It's not totally unreasonable that someone could fall for this. Many of the criminals doing this have gotten very sophisticated -- the emails look just like 'real' emails from the bank, and the fake websites look just like the real bank's website. It's obvious to me when a website link clearly doesn't go to the right domain, but that requires a certain level of knowledge about how Internet addressing works.

This is one of the reasons that many websites now have you enter your username, then show you a confirmation page with some custom image or phrase you select before you give them your password or any other information. Fake websites can't replicate that. Also, most newer web browsers display a more prominent indication when you are on a secure website with a valid certificate (like changing the color of the website address bar), so it is more obvious if you go to a site that claims to be secure but isn't.

Check out this Phishing Scam Quiz.
http://www.sonicwall.com/phishing/

I aced it. Of course, I develop web apps for a living so I'm probably a bit more tech savvy than you average web surfer.

-lt2

Aced it too!

is that -lt2 or -l2t though?

ydlsxeci ifgnres

Did you hear about the dyslexic agnostic insomniac? He stayed awake all night wondering if there was a dog.

yup, i love that joke, used it a lot

I got 5 out of 10. I'm afraid to look at my email now. Especially if the savvy internet ace is telling me to log on with a fake password to test it. It seems the result could be to discover that yes it is a hoax and now my computer is a zombie. Sort of like biting the worm to see if a hook is in it.

I could easily fall for this scam if I trusted my bank, but I don't prove my identity unless I need to. I don't really care if my bank knows if I'm me or not. I got nothing to prove. Maybe I'm not me. So what, deal with it.

I have learned a lot from this thread though. Thanks to all who have shared their knowledge here.

telerod, thanks for sharing that. don't feel bad, these phishers are total jerks. it's hard to imagine how all the thieves of the world can sleep at night. they call my mother up all the time (she's 87) they prey on people.

simple solution really is just to ignore all the emails you get, even if it's from one of your banks or credit card companies. if something seems real, then just log on (yourself, not from a link in the email) to your bank account as you usually do. If you don't use online banking or credit card interfaces then of course don't.

did you look at the hints and tips on the beginning of that test? they were helpful.

when I get a phone call from anyone from any bank or credit card (even if it's mine) i tell them right away "I'm sorry I don't take telemarketing calls, please remove my name from your list."

If it's really my bank or credit card calling, I make damn sure they can prove it to me by providing ME with info about me and my account. And if necessary I tell them I'll call THEM back.

Just like mommy used to say "don't talk to strangers" (except on a ski lift of course!)

Not a bad thing really. If it's important enough they'll reach you by phone.

That's the best strategy. Never use a link in an email. If you get mail you think is from PayPal, just go to your browser and type in paypal.com (or use your bookmark).