Posted by Hugh Nations Signing Agents of Austin on 4/14/08 12:27pm
Msg #243409

Phishing

Called my credit union this morning to check on something. At the close of the conversation, there was one matter left unresolved; I indicated to the officer that it wasn't very important, and he did not necessarily need to pursue it. An hour later, I received an email that I had a "secure" message waiting for me at a link that was provided. Assuming that it was the officer following up, I clicked, the link asked for some identifying information, which I gave, and I was sent to the home page of my credit union's website. -- not to any "secure" message about my earlier conversation.

At that point I knew I had been had, and it was a race between me to restrict my accounts, and some guy in Nigeria trying to strip them. Fortunately, I got there first.

Responding to that email may well have been the stupidest thing I have done this decade. I have no defense, but I will say this: The phishers have gotten more sophisticated than I ever would have believed. I assume it was only chance that they targeted me right after a phone call to my credit union; at least I hope it was. To know that they now can tell when a bank is called from a home phone would be scary. However, they had copied the credit union's website to the smallest detail, including multiple popup windows, each with multiple menu items.

Be careful out there.

Reply by Calnotary on 4/14/08 1:19pm
Msg #243420

Did you make the phone call from a VOIP phone? If not how can these people trace your calls?

Reply by Linda Juenger on 4/14/08 2:01pm
Msg #243430

This very same thing happened to me over the week-end. I bought something and used my Paypal account to purchase it. Within 2 hours I had an e-mail from (so called) PayPal saying something on the order that I had to update my account. Couldn't read it all because most of it was in a foreign language. I knew immediately that it was scam, but it is scary out their folks. People are watching what we do every moment.

That's the end for me and Paypal. I had some trouble before and thought it was just a one time thing, but evidently not.

Reply by BrendaTx on 4/14/08 2:28pm
Msg #243433

Foolproof way to avoid this...

If any email from any website or business you have a relationship with arrives in your box asking for any kind of information go directly to that website and do whatever the email has asked you to do.

99 times out of 100 the email is bogus in my experience.

If someone calls you on the phone about your bank account, politely explain to them that you'll need to call back your branch directly. (I've had that phone scam played on me (attempted) and they sure 'nuf do get mad when you won't give them any info.)

I get so many fake paypal, fake ebay, and my bank's fake emails that I immediately hit delete. I'm fortunate I didn't get caught in the past.

Probably would have gotten caught had my aunt not had something similar happen to her to tip me off.

Reply by Lisa Prestegard on 4/14/08 8:07pm
Msg #243482

This is what I do....

Each time I get an email from "PayPal", "eBay" or my bank, I forward it to [e-mail address] (insert domain name)
Usually, I receive a response from the TRUE party confirming that it was a phishing scam. Thankfully, I've never been duped although I get dozens of those emails each week.

Reply by SharonMN on 4/15/08 4:49pm
Msg #243584

Beware phone calls, too, even from local companies you know

I consider myself very good at detecting scams, but I almost got had by my local garbage collection company. They were calling to update the credit card on my account (which I knew had recently expired, so that made sense), and I almost gave it to them before I realized it could be absolutely anyone on the other end of the phone. So I told them I'd have to call them back because they might be a scam, and then I hung up and called the number on my statement. It truly was the garbage collectors with a legitimate request, but how easy would it have been for a scamster to call everyone in my area with the same story?