Every time I use paypal on ebay, I get a rash of phoney
pay pal emails. They ususally say" there has been unusual activitiy in your account and we have suspeneded all activity until you contact us to verify"

Of course, its all a lie. I've contacted Paypal about it, but obviously, they can't do anything.

When I get these, I go to my account, just to check on it, and then I delete those emails.

M

yep, I get those too. This one was different, and really made my heart race the way it looked and read. I always forward them with the full headers so maybe, just maybe someone can catch these jerks.

i get a paypal or ebay phishing email almost daily.

I've gotten spam after paying for an ebay item that came from the seller via spoofing. But a lot of them use Yahoo or AOL email, or another of the big commercial email addresses, and that comes with the territory. I can't find the link right now, but within the last few days I've read that within the past few days, or recently at any rate, Hotmail, Comcast and Yahoo (I think Yahoo was the third one)actually had their e-mail servers shut down due to the sheer volume of infected files coming through their servers.

Here's a funny story or sad depending on how you look at such things. A day or two after I paid for my last ebay item via paypal, I got an e-mail asking me to please participate in a survey regarding my paypal experience. Naturally, I forwarded it to paypal as spam. Within 2 minutes, I got an e-mail back from paypal stating it was in fact a legit survey they were conducting through "ABC" company and would I please participate. Even though the response was from paypal(there was nothing "fishy" looking about it), I just refused. I look at it this way, paypal, ebay etc., have a real problem with attempted fraud, to this point, they've treated it as 'our' problem and not theirs. Maybe if it starts affecting them negatively, they will fix what is really their problem.

The same is true of the above mentioned email servers,they can easily bounce back e-mail with infected files but they don't.

yes, some of those phishes are very savvy, appear to come from legit email addresses, and appear to link to a legit website. (not all are that well done, but many are.)

I get them for banks as well. As said above, the best rule of thumb is to check your financial institution's website regularly - critical notices should be there too. Now I don't even open any emails from them, and instead go to the website directly and log in.

There's been a fair amount of legislative activity pushed by financial institutions etc. Of course there is the problem of identifying the source (usually impossible) and of extraterritoriality, but at least they are getting the laws in place to untie enforcement's hands.

I got THE best phish the other day. It's not savvy or particularly good, but I really loved the content...especially since I don't live in Tennessee and have never been a teacher.

Here it is:

'This email confirms that your TENNESSEE TEACHERS Bank account has been charged $287.64 to Adultfriend
Finder (sales@Adultfriender.com) for year subscription.

This credit transaction will appear on your next statement.
If we do not receive a response from you, we will consider this transaction as legitim
and accept to charge the amount for Adultfriend Finder year subscription.
If you choose to dispute these charges that you have made please click the link below
to and complete the forms to cancel the transaction'

I...loved it and will save it forever.

Hmmm adult friends huh? Sheesh Stacey, you're alot more adventurous than I had given you credit for!

If you want to protect your computer from viruses and spam, you can get a free POP3 email program that allows you to check and read your email, and even delete it without ever downloading it to your computer.
I have been using it for years and I install it on every computer I work on.
A lot of emails that come in html format will have graphics in them that link directly to malicious websites.
Once the email is on your computer, they know they reached a valid email account.

The program is small, no bells and whistles, and best of all it's free and contains no spyware or advertising.

I use this program first to clean up my mailbox, leaving only the legit emails on the server, then I open my regular email program and download only the emails that I know are good.

I've posted a link to the site below.

Also a link to PC world is:
PCWorld.com - POP3 Scan Mailbox
http://images.pcworld.com/downloads/file_description/0,fid,5460,00.asp.

Anna

Here is a link that might be useful: POP3 Scan Mailbox

The best I have had is a regular mail from a Bank in Spain' saying that I had won 36 million dollars in a lotto- yeah right, I never played lotto, to top it all they wanted my bank account and SS# to deposit the money in my account.... sure.....

Obviously, someone thinks I need a new watch. For weeks now, I've been receiving these emails that are too funny!
The last one is below: Can I get one of these for any of you?

Our duty is your enjoyment- if you don't like your new wrist clocks, post it
back!

After scanning our reserve of over 1500 models, you'll perceive that you
located the most suitable timepiece.
Although the great sounding retail prices might shock you, recall that
craftmanship is our first priority.
Distinguish yourself from the rest by showing off your chicness and
sophistication.
We are unsurpassed in producing wrist-watches.
Your package is right where you expect it to be, thanks to our shipment
tracking system.

I have never used Paypal, nor bought anything on e-bay, yet even I get those phishing messages about my paypal accounts having unusual activity, yada-yada-yada. Obviously, in my case this has to be phoney, but I could sure see myself at risk for doing what the senders are after if I did have a paypal account.

Thank you, Lisa, for starting this thread, and warning us--if you've saved at least one person from being victimized, you've done a great service.

Rob

I maintain 2 bank accounts. One for the usual reasons where I monitor the balance daily and never allow it to exceed $300. I have another account with no cards attached which is only used by me to deposit and withdraw funds as needed. I never use it for purchases, PayPal or anything else. The only breach could be at the ATM window. I never have had a problem with either of the 2, keep my fingers crossed. The bank closed the active one once as someone tried to access it at several different ATMs but that attempt was unsuccessful.

Nick