Thursday, September 15, 2005
Spoof Emails-How To Protect Yourself ?
Spoof Emails - How Do You Protect Yourself ?
Phishing, the practice of sending spoof email, is when a third party sends an email that looks like it comes from eBay, Paypal or any type of banking institution which asks you to follow a link to update your account or to give sensitive financial information. eBay and Paypal will NEVER send an email asking you to follow a link to their site. Always access eBay pages by going to the eBay home page and logging in from there. This is the best way to protect yourself.
The criminals are getting so good at this that the emails look real. It is so frustrating. I almost answered one and gave out my eBay user ID and password. It looked so real, as if it were coming from an eBay member. The email said 'Where is my item? If I don't hear from you in 2 days, I am filing negative feedback.' It got my attention and I immediately clicked on the link to take me to the eBay item number. eBay then asked me to sign in and I went ahead and input my information. Luckily, my brother had installed a firewall and it popped up and said 'Do you really want to send this information to skeleton88 blah blah blah?' It was not sending my information to eBay but to a scammer. I never follow links from emails anymore, but go to the eBay home page and then input the item numbers. You can never be too cautious with your personal information.
Another way to protect yourself is to log onto your eBay account and check My Messages whenever it looks like eBay has sent you an alert or message related to your account. Bottom line – if an email affects your eBay account, it's in "My Messages". If you get an email that looks like it's from eBay about a problem with your account or that requests personal information, look in My Messages. If the same eBay email is not in "My Messages", it's a fake.
The issue of phishing emails and fraud on eBay and Paypal must be addressed. It has grown in such a huge proportion in the past few years that it seriously has the opportunity to hinder our eBay successes. eBay has been working diligently to combat this but it is still out of control. I met with an eBay executive in Canada who works in the Fraud division and she asked me if I am forwarding these spoof emails to eBay and I said 'No, I just don't have the time.' She asked me to please take the time - because this is the only way that they can quickly break up these criminal rings - if we take the time to help. Forward a copy of any ebay scam email to
spoof@ebay.com and Paypal spoof email to spoof@Paypal.com
Article By Lynn Dralle-The Queen Of Auctions (eBay I/D: thequeenofauctions )
