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Hey gang, got a query. I got an email this morning from Paypal saying that a new person has been added to my account, and I don't know this person. They included a link to contact if I did not authorize the addition but when I click on it, I get the "cannot find server" page. Has someone swiped my info, possibly? Do I need to worry about this? Does this sound like a scam? What do y'all think? Nervous....

It's a scam. Go to the paypal site and email them and let them know you've recieved this email.

is there a phone number you can call to contact them?

I panicked. As soon as I got it, I PM'ed Tombstone, because the only time I have used Paypal was to buy my sponsorship here. He tells me it's a fishing email, trying to get my info. I logged in and the account number on my debit card is not the one they have for this. I also wrote to the email address of the person who was supposedly "added" and asked who the hell this was. I got an email back instantly that said this user does not exist. So, as T said, no worries. I panicked for nada.

Well, we've finally found something that I panick about! The thought of someone having access to my money!!

I'm glad it turned out okay.

I'd still check my credit card charges online for the next few days, just in case.

BabyRider wrote: I panicked. As soon as I got it, I PM'ed Tombstone, because the only time I have used Paypal was to buy my sponsorship here. He tells me it's a fishing email, trying to get my info. I logged in and the account number on my debit card is not the one they have for this. I also wrote to the email address of the person who was supposedly "added" and asked who the hell this was. I got an email back instantly that said this user does not exist. So, as T said, no worries. I panicked for nada.

Well, we've finally found something that I panick about! The thought of someone having access to my money!!


I'm sure most people in your position would've panicked! You hear about these things all the time about people stealing your personal information from the Internet and you just can't be too careful. At least it's sorted anyway

Accountable wrote: I'm glad it turned out okay.

I'd still check my credit card charges online for the next few days, just in case.
Sound advice as always, Acc. Thanks! :-6

so BR...did you see Tombstone's new BMW? :driving:

lady cop wrote: so BR...did you see Tombstone's new BMW? :driving:


:yh_rotfl :yh_rotfl

lady cop wrote: so BR...did you see Tombstone's new BMW? :driving:


It's black, with black leather interior, alloy wheels, oh - uh! Did I say that out loud?

:wah:

SnoozeControl wrote: Forward the entire email to spoof@paypal.com
Oh that's great, Snooze, thanks!

Hey you guys, check out this site for this stuff. Has lots of info on "phishing scams" and email hoaxes and viruses:

www.hoax-slayer.com

I love it!

BabyRider wrote: Hey gang, got a query. I got an email this morning from Paypal saying that a new person has been added to my account, and I don't know this person. They included a link to contact if I did not authorize the addition but when I click on it, I get the "cannot find server" page. Has someone swiped my info, possibly? Do I need to worry about this? Does this sound like a scam? What do y'all think? Nervous....


You may want to change your account number as it is a debit card. See what your bank says......that is your money and banks are acting weird (as I have read)look at the problem Blackjack was having with a credit card....

BabyRider wrote: I panicked. As soon as I got it, I PM'ed Tombstone, because the only time I have used Paypal was to buy my sponsorship here. He tells me it's a fishing email, trying to get my info. I logged in and the account number on my debit card is not the one they have for this. I also wrote to the email address of the person who was supposedly "added" and asked who the hell this was. I got an email back instantly that said this user does not exist. So, as T said, no worries. I panicked for nada.

Well, we've finally found something that I panick about! The thought of someone having access to my money!!


Most times if it looks like a scam, smells like a scam, & feels like a scam, it is! Just delete the unknown name emails "without" opening them. If it's that important they will call you on the phone, and talk to person to person.

BabyRider wrote: Hey gang, got a query. I got an email this morning from Paypal saying that a new person has been added to my account, and I don't know this person. They included a link to contact if I did not authorize the addition but when I click on it, I get the "cannot find server" page. Has someone swiped my info, possibly? Do I need to worry about this? Does this sound like a scam? What do y'all think? Nervous....


Never click the link any of those phishing give you. Instead, go to spoof@paypal.com and report it. And try to reply to the email address they sent to you. You will get it back undelivered. I get them all the time from Paypal scammers and from banks. I dont even have accounts with some of those. Ebay also have people trying to get your info too. Most will tell you that if you dont answer in a certain number of days your account will be dropped.

I did get a phone call from my bank a few weeks ago telling me my debit card had been compromised so they were deleting it and would send me a new card in two weeks. They did. This was not email and I had no reason to doubt it and of course it was true. I also saw a news item telling about thousands of debit cards being compromised. I had got depending on mine so much its hard to be whithout one.

I get these all the time. I send them to spoof@paypal.com. Then I keep checking my account with them. NEVER click on the email! Go directly to the paypal web yourself. I change my password often when this happens too. Be Careful!

while changing passwords is often a good idea, what's better is using a secure password in the first place - secure meaning 'virtually uncrackable'. too often - and i was guilty of it in the past myself - people use short, simple words or combinations of words as passwords. things that are easy to remember. unfortunately, easy to remember == easy to crack, all other things being equal.



i'm a strong proponent of Roboform. yes, it's a commercial product, it costs some money if you want the full featured version. it's worth it, in spades. it has a built in password generator, that can create passwords that simply can't be cracked by any means other than massively parallel processing. which means that maybe the NSA could crack it, nobody else will.



my paypal password is 15 characters long, a mixture of lowercase and uppercase letters, numbers, and symbols (like "#" or "$"). i could never remember it. but roboform does. i open up my browser to www.paypal.com, and it automatically asks me if i want to fill in my paypal password. i have hundreds and hundreds of sites with passwords that roboform has saved for me, i don't have to remember anything. it can create passwords up to 500 characters long - of course, you're usually limited by what the site you're visiting has as a limit - usually somewhere from 8 to 20 characters.



of course - if you want the roboform passwords themselves to be secure, then you need to use a 'master password' that will keep roboform from being opened by others. that's the kind of password you should have a written record of - keep it in a firesafe if you like.



anyway, http://www.roboform.com . i've been using it for several years now. it's worth every penny - i could not function securely on the internet without it.

My cheap version of that is to combine a name and date, then hold the shift key down in the middle.



Forinstance, I take Chonsi's name and today's date:



022&)^CHonsi


I have 3 or 4 dates that I use (not anniversary or stuff like that) and 3 or 4 names (For the really secure stuff, I use foreign friends & family). Switching positions on the name & date, and holding down the shift key earlier or later, make for an almost infinite list of passwords.

well, the good news is that there's a portable version of roboform - Pass-to-go. same functionality, but you install it on your USB thumb drive (also called a flash drive or memorystick). so you have your passwords with you, whereever you go, you don't have to install anything on your PC at work or home, and the passwords you save are protected by your master password - the one and only password you need to memorize.



only problem is that the 'sys guys' often object to users attaching a thumbdrive to a work PC. it depends on the company policies. i'd bet though that if you directed them to the roboform website, they'd probably buy a site license - it's a security enhancing tool, which sys guys are usually all in favor of.

:-6

randall snooping around again,

Thanks for the warning about PayPal. I only joined to pay Forum Garden as well and as there are only a few pounds in the account there is little I have to worry about.

HOWEVER - has anyone tried "E-LOTTERY" and is it a scam.

It purports to be a way of paying/playing the British Lottery - which is definitely not a scam - with the advantage that

(A) You do not need to go downtown to the shops to buy your lottery tickets and

(B) You do not need to claim your prize they send it to you - after six months the unclaimed winnings are given to charity and millions have been lost in this way - onlylast month someone in Lanarkshire, Scotland, lost over £3,000,000 because they did not claim and that is not the largest amount so far.

What I do not understand it that CAMELOT ( the official name of the lottery operators - also tied in with the Americna G3!) can tell which shop the winning ticket was sold from and the date it was bought not what on earth are they thinking about when they could easily offer every regular player a PIN (Personal Identification Number - usually three number - or four as on credit cards.) at the same time and then no one would loose.

So that is the reason behind my question about "E-Lottery" - IS IT A SCAM.

The best NO-BET is the British Premium Bonds offered by the British Government in which your numbers are drawn on the first day of every month and THEY DO SEND THE MONEY TO - IF YOU WIN????

The main thing for those short of money is that IT IS a definite way of saving because you can ask for your money back - I have many times when unemployed, unexpected house repairs come up.

But recently they increased the winnings maximum to "2" (TWO) Million Pound First Prizes.

The mathematicians amongst us say their odds are better then the football pools and certainly better then CAMELOTS BRITISH GOVERNMENT(?) LOTTERY.

i HAVE NOT WON A FORTUNE BUT MY FIRST HIGHLAND DRESS OUTFIT CAME FROM ONE OF MY FIRST WINNINGS BACK IN 1965 NOT LONG AFTER HAROLD MACMILLAN INTRODUCED THE IDEA.

If you are under 60 you have to buy them in lots of £100 or over in even numbers of ten (ANOTHER OF MRS THATCHER'S BRIGHT IDEASE WHICH HAS DEPRIVED MANY OLD AGE PENSIONERS OF THE OPERTUNITY OF GIVING THEIR GRANDCHILDREN £10 OR £20 OR SO!



The draws, as I said are on the first day of each month AFTER your money has lain for one month.

In March a one million pound winner only bought the ticket in January.

They put the total holding of the winner, the area in which they live and the month in which the ticket was bought on Ceefax/Teletex every month.

Two years ago I first noticed this - the winner of the solitary one million pounds on the 1st Spetmber, had bought his or her ticket at the end of July.

What bank copuld ofer you that interest on £1.00p??

Those who live overseas can also buy them and the money is sent to them.

Much to my chagrin whilst working in a Power Station in Kowloon, Hong Kong, I introduced both Football Pools and Premium Bonds to a fellow wormate.

Thereafter he seemed to win quite large sums of money every few months - he should them to me.

Surely you are born with luck. I do not believe that you can create your own.

In this "BIBLE BELT" of Scotland such things are looked down on.

Last week, after listening to the angry ramblings of a "Christian" about the eveil things I was doing I replied, quite spontaneously - it surprised me.

"It is always said that God helps those who help themselves. It may even be in the Bible. I am just giving God an extra opportunity to help me because HE certainly knows that I desperately need it."

As an old age pensioner I can buy £50 per month by using a bank direct debit. - but it is still a lot off a British OAP Pension!

God bless.

randall

:guitaris

"DICLAIMER" - "I hereby swear that I am in no ways employed by either CAMELOT or THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT except in the capacity of being a source of indiscriminate and illegal taxes."

:-6

Further to randall's ramblings about PayPal and other things like lotteries I would like to report that I have just received a e-mail purporting to be from PayPal asking me to start up a gambling account with them - apparently mainly on horese - has anyone else received this ??????*****.

I have never bet on a horse except once in five years or so in a syndicate with workmates. We are still waiting for it to come in!

Horses are very intelligent animals - they never bet on horses - or humans either for that matter.

Alan Sugar, Britains equivalent of Donald Trump (but not Scottish that I know of), is running a series of TV adds on Premium Nonds and other British Governments backed savings bonds - because, as he says - he never gambles and all the money he earns from the advert goes the the famous Great Ordmand Street Hospital For Sick Children. In London, England as you Yanks are fond of saying.http://www.forumgarden.com/forums/image ... icon12.gif

Wink

Incidentally, I never bothered to answer to the Paypal offer of a gambling accoun

God bless all.

randall

:) t.