Not about photography but is this a scam?

[geoff_foale]

This really follows on from Ellis Vener's recent post about malicious codes and

scams etc. A few minutes ago, while reading this forum, an e-mail arrived from

Capital One Bank ID COB495886838. They claim that because of invalid login

attempts they want to check my details and add an extra verification process.

 

Suspicious because firstly I don't have an account with them and secondly in

the text they have spelt there as their.

 

Either way, I zapped the message without going any further but just wondered if

anybody else has received something similar.

 

Now let's return to important things like discussing photography.

 

Geoff.

[Matt Laur]

No e-mail from Capital One, or Bank Of America, or the widow of a rich Nigerian oil industry minister, is legit if it spurs you into action that you did not initiate. Your bank will never send you e-mail like that. Ever. Personally initiate all online activity with your bank by going directly to their web site, and never in response to a link in any e-mail you receive. Photographically, it would be interesting to see who can get the best pictures of the people who send such junk being tarred and feathered and ridden out of town backwards on a mule, en route to a pit full of fire ants.

[buckry]

I get this exact email 9 times a day, each one is from a different financial institution, Paypal, Bank1, National City, Western Union, and on and on and on. This is extremely common, they want to you click a link that says Paypal.com but it really goes to 4442cb2aa9y.com and when you get there it looks exactly like Paypal, so you try to log on and you are actually emailing your paypal ID and password to Nigeria.

[art_haykin]

These scam e-mails are called "phishing," and are used all the time to con people out of their senstitive personal data. I get at least such every month.

[bobatkins]

One a month? I get 10 or more a DAY. After a while you just learn to ignore them. If my bank has a problem with my account they will write to me or call me on the phone. Unless I've just bought something on ebay or just made a Paypal payment, all email coming from those sources is also immediately junked.

 

"... firstly I don't have an account with them...", this should give you a clue as to whether it's legit or not!

[atlatling]

Scams! Scams! and more Scams! Last Monday one of my credit card companies called and asked if we really sent $6400.00 to someone who's name resembled a charity, i.e. March of Dimes. I can be thankful that they caught it before a second attempt was made. We of course stopped that account and two others which we had but hadn"t used for a long time. But we still have a lot of paperwork and calls to make getting everything closed completely, check three Credit Bureaus etc. I'm like most of you above. I don't answer any e-mail from anyone I don't absolutely know. If they really want information, they will send more e-mails, snail mail and telephone calls, but first they have to convince me that I know them.

[atlatling]

Scams! Scams! and more Scams! Last Monday one of my credit card companies called and asked if we really sent $6400.00 to someone who's name resembled a charity, i.e. March of Dimes. I can be thankful that they caught it before a second attempt was made. We of course stopped that account and two others which we had but hadn"t used for a long time. But we still have a lot of paperwork and calls to make getting everything closed completely, check three Credit Bureaus etc. I'm like most of you above. I don't answer any e-mail from anyone I don't absolutely know. If they really want information, they will send more e-mails, snail mail and telephone calls, but first they have to convince me that I know them. Sure am glad PhotoNet tells us that someone has requested our email address, so I can be looking forward to receiving a note from that person.

[geoff_foale]

Matt's suggestion sounds interesting. I try to be careful, don't have a web site and as far as possible keep my e-mail address ex-directory and limited to a few trusted people. It's sad to think, as Ellis said in his previous post, that as technology advances we trust fewer people.

 

In the good old pre internet days we had simple crude scams like send a cheque to the Campaign Against Saddam Hussein or C. Ash. Since writing my question I managed to contact the guy who works for me and knows more about this sort of thing than me and he said that recently he received a genuine looking e-mail purporting to come from Paypal and asking him to update his account. As the scams and viruses look more realistic will it lead to a collapse of confidence in anything concerning the internet?

 

Anyway, thanks for the replies. Geoff.

 

ps. At the moment I'm trying to fit a double line border with caption around a photo and fit into a frame - if I can't get that correct I'll come back and ask a 'real' question.

[William Kahn]

I got a similar email yesterday, supposedly from Regions Bank, wanting "account verification" info due to an impending software upgrade. Riiight. I forwarded it to the real Regions Bank, which has a phishing complaint desk. Funny thing is, I'm not even a Regions customer......

[aeh]

All the above emails should not be opened. when you open them it indicates to the sender that your email address is valid. You should just foward them to "Spoof @ ebay, pay pal etc. Look up the real address and forward it there and let them investigate. Al

[William Kahn]

It doesn't matter whether you open them or not. If your ISP doesn't bounce it back to the sender, they know it's a valid address. What you don't want to do is open any links contained in the text....