Category: phish

5 things to do when You get scammed and burned!!

Paul

I usually don’t like to talk about this but I was recently scammed by a scam artist who tried to make me believe they are Police Men and they were court appointed “Lead Investigators“. Suffice it to say that I found out two or three days later from friends and family that this was not right. After Googling the Number “1-877-499-9473“. Which if you are like me quite confused but thankfully I had other resources like what my Credit Card said and they said it was “CHECK MANAGEMENT SERVICES 716-6942500 NY“. Anyway I have already talked about one scam when it comes to cash checking.  I also want to talk about how you can tell if it is scam, some of the more common things t hat I find are:

 

  • Must Pay Now — These are scams that say that you can get something for really cheap, if you pay now.   This should always be the first flag.

  • Scare Tactics –  These are scams that try to scare you into buying a product or giving them money because something is about happen.   They try to confuse you into paying.   This is also one of the RED Flags.

  • Free products –   Here is another that I find because you have to read the fine print and see that you aren’t really getting it for free but trial and that you will be charged for the product after a certain amount of time.   This is another RED Flag, in my opinion.

  • Pressure Tactics –– This can be anything from constantly calling you to making radical claims about product.   If you have any doubts.   Always ask yourself “Could this be to GOOD to be TRUE??“

I know I will have missed a few key ones but these are the ones that I see all the time. I know want to talk about what you should do:

  1. Call your Local Police Department and File a Complaint–  This is a must because most banks and credit card companies require proof that there was a crime committed.   By doing this you are fighting back against the scam and showing them you will fight for your rights.

  2. Call Your Bank or Credit Card Company — Now since you made the complaint you should now have your bank or Credit Card company reverse the charges so you can get your money back. You will have proof that this was illegal and the bank/Credit Card will comply with all Local or State laws. This seems a sure way to get your money back.

  3. File a Complaint with the BBB — This one can be tricky if you don’t know who the company is but if you look at your credit card information and Google it you might get an idea to where look

  4. File a Complaint with the Federal Trade Commission — This is one of those that you have a choice in how your proceed but this will help out when all else fails. They might even be able to give you more information about the company and help you get your money back. This is however just a guess but it is a good way of fighting scammers.

  5. Tell you Family and Friends about the Scam — This is also important because most of the time these scammers find you by talking to your family or friends. So warning them can keep them from getting to close. Although it will not always work, it does provide a little protection down the road.

I intend to file my complaints to all the above plus more to fight this particular scam so I can get my money back. I am sure this isn’t over by a long shot but I do Hope this has helped you in a small way like it help me. If you have come here trying to find out information about the number and haven’t paid them, don’t do it. Call you local Police and report them and still report them to as many places as possible to help those who have been scammed or could be scammed. If you know anyone who has been scammed maybe it is time to show them this article so they can find out how to get their money back.

Have a Good Wednesday, See you Friday!!


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New Facebook Phishing campaign!

Paul

According to Sans Internet Storm,  They have seen some signs of a new Phishing campaign like the[intlink id=”3419″ type=”post”] Look at this Phishing campaign[/intlink] that went through a few weeks ago.  At the time of writing that report they weren’t being resolved they now are being resolved making you look like you are logging into Facebook:

Phishing look a like!! Phishing look a like!!

[ad]Sites that are hosting these are in Belgium and are Redbuddy.be, Redfriend.be, and picoband.be.     If you recieve this with these urls you best thing you can do is just to delete them.   Some people have said it is using the term “look at this” I am unsure as to is or not but you can usually tell because of the the URL and if it isn’t Http://www.facebook.com or Https://www.facebook.com then you aren’t logging into Facebook but are logging into a fake site.

We’ve talked about [intlink id=”2644″ type=”post”]why criminals want to use your account and why they need to get your passwords[/intlink].  I know they want to take control of your account for one reason or another but that is where the Facebook users need to keep watch on the URLS being displayed when you log into Facebook.    If you did that then you are one step ahead of the nefarious criminals and can be at peace.  Just like the Look at this campaign if you did visit those sites and given out your password it is strongly recommended to reset your password.

Update #1 — More Domains have been created areps.at, greenbuddy.be, vispace.be, whiteflash.be, and bestspace .be . All these domains resolve to 211.95.78.98 And can be determined by going to Http://www.dns.be or http://www.dns.at  .   It looks like the server is hosted in China.  I wouldn’t be surprised if t here were even more domains going to be regestered that were in Belgium!!  On a Side note it seems all these have a malicious hidden iframe in them so “DON”T Visit them unless you know what your doing“.   I suspect that is how they are keep having people post to Facebook about these but that is only my theory!!  (Thanks Sans Internet Storm for all those updates)

Facebook and Twitter Phishing going on today!

Paul

According to Techcrunch we have one phishing site ground around peoples inboxes on facebook with it say “Check areps.at”.  You go to the site and you will think your at the facebook login but your not.  I wouldn’t suggest going to any of these sites, it has been reported by Phishtank.

[ad]Some of the sites to avoid today are : “nutpic.at, bests.at, areps.at, kirgo.at” each site will make you think your at facebook but this is what most will call a [intlink id=”3419″ type=”post”]Phishing scam[/intlink].  Some other things to avoid are some Twitter phshing going on today as well.

According to Trend Micro there is one where the url looks like it is a twitter url but isn’t (tvviter[dot]com).  The site is what people would call a typosquatting site.   This makes people think they are on twitter but aren’t.   If you go to these to sites and have given out your passowrd, it is strongly recommended that your reset them:

Facebook password reset page

Twitter password Reset Page

If you would like to know more about what phsihing is please check out my blog for more information.  Don’t forget to check out the forums for more information on this or just to talk about anything on your mind.

*Some reports I am seeing is some of these sites might be trying to get you to install the [intlink id=”2249″ type=”post”]Koobface virus [/intlink]so please be careful, will update when I find out more.*

Facebook Phish : “Look at this!”

Paul

Facebook seems to be coming the most widely used Social Website around right now, I went to Alexa to see what it said about how many users go there a day and I find this:

facebookalexa

So No wonder there are a lot of people who want to get your personal information. Yesterday there was a new email that was spreading with the Subject “Look at this!” and it points to fbstarter.com. When you go there you will find it looks really like Facebook but your not really at facebook sign in page. They want to use your Facebook account to gather information about your email account, or who your friends with. They also might try doing the old Scam of asking for Money because they are someplace and can’t get home without your help.  They could also want to spread a [intlink id=”2249″ type=”post”]virus through your account[/intlink], or [intlink id=”2958″ type=”post”]steal your identity[/intlink].

[ad#cricket-right-ez]At the time of writing this the site is active and looks like Facebook but really isn’t.   You should always login in to Facebook the right way by going to:

http://www.Facebook.com

or

https://www.facebook.com

If you have went to that site and entered your password in there, I know it happens to even Journalists.   You can reset your password. This way you can make sure the people behind that site don’t have your password.   I do suggest however you start using a more secure password.  You should always use both Numbers and letters in your password.  Use a different password for each place your signup for.   I suggest [intlink id=”2646″ type=”post”]Roboform[/intlink] to better help you protect your password and it helps make up a secure password for you.  The nice thing about Roboform is that you don’t have to write down your password on a piece of paper, but you do have to remember to [intlink id=”3171″ type=”post”]backup your passwords[/intlink] from time to time.  Facebook is looking to be more and more a targeted for the criminals activity, and you should watch what you do online.

Hotmail accounts get compromised!!

Paul8 Replies

I received an email on a list and wanted to warn people:
[ad]

Dear friend,
i would like to introduce a good company who trades mainly in electornic products. Now the company is under sales promotion, all the products are sold nearly at its cost. They provide the best service to customers,they provide you with original products of good quality,and what is more,the price is a surprising happiness to you! It is realy a good chance for shopping.just grasp the opportunity,Now or never!
The web address: http://www.nekcn.com

Seems this is being sent from Hotmail accounts. There are a number of ways someone could be getting a hold of your email address. According to Microsoft forums this seems to delete your email contacts and also send out this in the same time. This seems to be a new spam campaign for this one company. I would guess someone bought advertising from this company and the advertiser is doing some really unmoral things.

There are several ways someone hotmail account could be sending out these emails. It could be a [intlink id=”2650″ type=”post”]phishing attempt like they did with Twitte[/intlink]r. They could of done a dictionary attack on each account to find the password, that I why [intlink id=”2646″ type=”post”]I suggest having a password generator[/intlink]. It could of been a virus, and if that is the case you would need to [intlink id=”2205″ type=”page”]check your system out for the virus[/intlink]. I would guess it is the first two, because I am unsure of if you can have pop3 account or not. I don’t use Hotmail but people seem to be using it.

If you recieve this email, I’d email the account responsible to let them know that they have sent this.  I would also like to know if it was a virus or how they account got compromised.   Remember only you can prevent from getting a virus, nothing else works better than yourself.