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Date:	Mon, 14 Jul 2003 21:31:17 PDT7
From:	"J. R. Fox" <jr_fox@pacbell.net >
Reply-To:	scoug-help@scoug.com
To:	scoug-help@scoug.com, xywrite@ccat.sas.upenn.edu
Subject:	SCOUG-Help: Warning: Trolling for Dollars, Scammers hard at work {was: forged Failure Notice}

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Thought I ought to pass this along to the list. There are things worse than
viruses and worms about. Within the past 10 days, I have received two
similar scams via email, one purportedly from my ISP, the other purportedly
from Ebay. Superficially, they looked legit: official looking notes from
supposed staff at each, claiming that my account info was not up to date, and I
must click on the enclosed link, taking me to a page at their site where official
looking forms had to be filled out. Failing to do this could result in "account
termination." The site pages looked legit, replete with the right URL, official
logos, the TRUST-e insignia, their insistence of confidentiality and SSL encryption.
I mean, it all looked spot on.

But they were asking for things like Social Security #, mother's maiden name, etc.
I hope loud alarm bells are going off in your head also, as you read this !!

I dropped a dime on the first one, to the ISP's fraud division. Sure enough, they
were already aware of it, and this was totally bogus. The second, more recent one
may have given themselves away, in that the sender claimed to be someone named
"Marry" in the Ebay Billing Dept., where I expect they meant "Mary." I sent "her"
an email reply with some extremely impolite suggestions, and it bounced back to me,
undelivered. Not entirely unexpected.

The crooks are getting a lot better at this ! The legit ones can be very dangerous too.
I know some folks pay all their bills online, and blithely do all sorts of things that way.
Personally, I don't think ANYONE should have your personal info on file, anywhere --
especially online. Bank sites, Western Union -- you name it -- they've all been hacked
more than a few times.

Jordan

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