Thursday, June 15, 2006

Email Scams....

Most of us have seen the infamous subject line in our email: "URGENT - Update your PayPal Account." Well, as it turns out - the hyperlink can take you to a seemingly innocuous, legitimate website. Except it doesn't. Instead - it takes you to a phony website spoofed to look like PayPal's login screen. It looks like paypal - all the logos and their info on it. But if you look at the url it doesn't say paypal.com. And by putting in your username/password information - some thief can take your information and let the endless spending games begin.

The latest trick is to spoof Amazon.com.

So...
-Never click on the hyperlink in the email..
-ALWAYS type out the correct URL for PayPal and Amazon to sign into your account..
-Report the erroneous email to PayPal and Amazon's security departments..

At best, they will contact the host company for the erroneous website and hopefully shut it down.

Be careful out there!

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