Burned by PayPal spoof

[tooldummy]

OK, I called my agent and asked about this. Accoding to his secretary, this wouldn't be covered. Just credit card theft. But it might not hurt to ask anyway.

[Rocky Raab]

I'd probably go to jail myself if I filed a third claim to recover it all.

So far, BOTH my bank and Paypal have reimbursed me in total. So at least for the moment, I'm ahead by $996.








No, I'm not gonna do it.

[fabsroman]

Got this today in my e-mail. Funny thing is that I do not have a paypal account. Utterly incredible. These people should be shot.

Dear PayPal Member,

Our comprehensive fraud-prevention program is one of the key reasons PayPal is a safe way to pay online. We believe that innovation and careful analysis is the way to beat fraud. That's why PayPal has developed industry-leading models to review every transaction, and help detect suspicious activity.

Our Fraud Investigation Team recently detected suspicious activity in your account. In order to continue to operate the PayPal service and to reduce the risk of fraud, PayPal Corp. ("PayPal" or "we") must ask you to provide us information about yourself and your credit card and/or bank account.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To do so please follow the link below.
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_login-run
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. Please understand that this is a security measure meant to help you and protect your account. We apologize for any inconvenience.


Sincerely,
PayPal Fraud Investigation Department

PayPal Email ID PP562

[fabsroman]

Then again, maybe I should let them steal a bunch of money so that I can come out ahead like Rocky. If they steal $10,000, that means that I will come out $10,000 ahead. Sounds great to me. Only problem is that I might not get reimbursed by my bank or PayPal.

[Rocky Raab]

Hey Fabs, HERE's a lawyerly kind of thought...

If I shoot the guy who stole my identity - is it murder or suicide?

[Steverino]

please describe your selection criteria of cartridge utilized (I am sure that you will have some sort of a special handload in mind-hypothetically speaking, of course) as well as the gun to shoot the would be stealer of said identity and why .

[tooldummy]

I didn't know you had recouped your losses. I guess I should have read your posts closer.

[Rapier]

Rocky,
Sorry for the problem. I stopped using PayPal over 4 years ago when they tried to keep my court ordered restitution money. I had to go to the FBI to get my money back from PayPal.

So if you got your money back without using the justice department, you are lucky and something better must have happened at PayPal.
Ed

[denton]

That's a bummer of an experience. Sorry to hear about it.

I've had days where I've gotten six different notices that I've won various lotteries. The PayPal "confirm your details" messages come pretty regularly, along with some saying that my eBay standing is in jeapardy because of a dispute on some item that I've never heard of.

Is there some way we can get a season on these spammers? I can hardly pick my real email out from amid the incoming trash.

[gumpokc]

Denton, unless you learn how to read email headers, you'll have to rely on some sort of a software solution, ie some sort of spam blocking software.

If you learn to read the headers and what to watch for, it's pretty simpel to spot them, but does take a little time.

pnce you can read headers you can setup some of the filters in your blocking software to better suit yourself, or if you really want to get into it, there are ways to backtrack the email to a certain extant.

The thing that'll really tick you off is this..... When windows XP came out, they released it with full raw sockets ability.
basically a network testing ability that no normal user needs or will ever even hear of, but it gave windows PC's the same IP masking abilities that only unix/linux machines had prior to that.
Microsoft knew this would happen, people in those circles went on about it for months, but nicrosoft went ahead and released it anyway.

Sometimes i think they release buggy/exploit ridden software, just to keep themselves in business "fixing" what should have never existed in the first place.

the second thing that really get your goat, is about 1997 or 98 there was a big push for _ALL_ mail servers to have a small bit of code added (less than 20 min for any halfass coder to do) that would have made spam, as we see it today, impossible.
Yes soem would have still be around, but not the way it is.

BUT noone wanted to do it, because it "wasen't their problem".

[Drew_CarreyAB]

I too was hit with this Pay-Pal crap......I got a call saying that someone had tried to take $ out of my bank account through Pay-Pal (It was lucky that I didn't have any $$ in the account). I got charged an NSF fee from my bank and from my other institutions(Insurance and the like) for not having sufficient funds. I called the office in the states and they put a freeze on the account and were going to look into it.....I wish they would give the scammed all the info they find on the scammers, it would be nicer that way(wink, wink) to deal with the problem IMHO.

[Rocky Raab]

It looks like I'll finally have it all sorted out soon.

Actually, PayPal and my bank were both VERY helpful. Both parties have an active anti-fraud forces, and they both jumped on it in my behalf. I've since gotten all the transactions reversed, and I'm essentially back to where I started, money-wise.

BUT - and here's the head-banging, frustrating, sleep-losing half of the equation: I had to close several bank accounts, get new ones, pay for all new computer-fed checks, change (and endlessly explain WHY) all my merchant accounts (credit card acceptance, bill paying, online sales, etc and endless etc). It's taken DAYS of doing little BUT this crap. In the meantime, I had bills come due - and no way to pay them either online or with still-to-arrive checks. Try explaining that to creditors over and over again!

It's a goldurn nightmare.

[denton]

On the lighter side, there are several groups of people who delight in taking revenge on the scammers.

Probably the most hilarious happened with the familiar "we will give you a nice bribe if you will help launder some money" scam out of Nigeria.

The intended victim wrote back that he was the financial officer of a monastic religious order, and he was sure he could help them out, and that the profit would be a great blessing to the monastery, since it was in need of repairs.

Well, that got the scammer going... would he please send the necessary $30,000 processing fees, etc.

The victim wrote back that he was required to do business only with good Christian people, which the scammer assured him that he was. Then the victim got his revenge:

It seems that the order was founded by Sister Jones, a missionary in darkest Africa. Members of the order are required to strip to the waist, and paint a large 9 on their chest. Would the scammer please take the necessary oath, and provide a photo of himself properly painted? Yes, he would. Back came the required photo.

Very good! By the way, our victim showed the photo of the scammer to the Widow Smith, who finds him quite attractive. Would he be interested in a connection, with matrimony in mind? Well, no. At this point the victim acted very indignant, and led the scammer in a merry dance. Prejudice, you know.

Oh... the money? Well, of course, no problem. But, you see the order takes vows of poverty, and... well... would the scammer mind sending $80 to cover the withdrawal costs? And the scammer did. Victim quietly donated it to charity.

Pretty quick, the scammer is back, demanding to know where his money is. The victim then writes back in the persona of his supervisor, asking the scammer if he has any idea where the victim is. Seems that $30,000 is missing from the monastery's account, and the victim was last seen leaving town in the company of a Gypsy woman....

I can't tell it as well as the original victim, but by the time I was done reading it, I had tears rolling down my cheeks.... sweet revenge.

[indianahick]

[Dear PayPal Member,

Our comprehensive fraud-prevention program is one of the key reasons PayPal is a safe way to pay online. We believe that innovation and careful analysis is the way to beat fraud. That's why PayPal has developed industry-leading models to review every transaction, and help detect suspicious activity.

Our Fraud Investigation Team recently detected suspicious activity in your account. In order to continue to operate the PayPal service and to reduce the risk of fraud, PayPal Corp. ("PayPal" or "we") must ask you to provide us information about yourself and your credit card and/or bank account.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To do so please follow the link below.
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_login-run
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. Please understand that this is a security measure meant to help you and protect your account. We apologize for any inconvenience.


Sincerely,
PayPal Fraud Investigation Department

PayPal Email ID PP562

I got that message also. Hit reply and told them that I did not believe in letting anyone have my bank accounts and secondly I was not a member of pay pal. Drop dead.

[skeeter@ccia.com]

I like the outcome of Dentons story...wonder if they can get us for scamming them back?....Seems they say if outside the States, nothing they can do for you...so wonder if that works both ways?...