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On 2005-07-19 02:03:45, FraudEliminator Team writes: Phishing is a subset of fraud Many people think they're too smart for phishing attacks. They think "I never click on links in e-mails, so what's the problem?" The fact is, phishing is just one category of online fraud. And online fraud is the big problem. For example, do a search on google for "plasma television." Hundreds of sponsored listings (AdWords) appear on the right sign of the screen. Click on one, and you're on an alleged plasma TV site. How do you know it's legit? It could be a site that's been in existence for 5 days and hosted in Romania. It's not like the real world, where when you walk into a store, you have an immediate feel for if it's a big safe store (like BestBuy or CircuitCity) or some shady grey market dealer. A professional looking website can be designed by a teenager anywhere on earth. If you do a search for Viagra, you'll see that the top ad isn't even for Pfizer. It's for some illicit pharmacy whose website has been up for 3 days. Think about it this way. Suppose that you're a criminal who has stolen one credit card number. How do you get more? Use the stolen credit card to buy advertising on Google. Direct people to a fraudulent website advertising, say, plasma televisions for $250. Get 20 more stolen cards from people who try to buy the plasma television. And repeat. We've actually seen this happen. And we're working on numerous improvements to our product to protect against these criminal enterprise sites. Be careful, and shop/surf safely. Check the country and registration date for every website you visit (using our toolbar:). On 2005-07-13 02:45:11, FraudEliminator Team writes: A particularly nefarious scam... Recently we wrote about how PayPal scams account for the largest number of phishing scams on the net. The newest ones exploit users' fear of phishing and security attacks, making them even more pernicious. PayPal has over 71 million accounts, and take a look at this scam (sent via e-mail, phishing links removed). It looks like an e-mail warning that somebody else has broken into your account, which is a particularly compelling method to get people to take the bait: From: "PayPal"<> Reply-To: <> Date: Wed, 13 Jul 2005 02:29:03 +0200 To: undisclosed-recipients:; Subject: You have added a new credit card home address! This email confirms that you have added the following address to your account: 1515 6th Street Manhattan Beach, CA 90266 United States If you did not authorize this change or if you need assistance with your account, go to : https://paypal.com/webscreen=?cmd_remove/value=cookie?newadress Sincerely, PayPal Did you know: EBAY HAS PRODUCTS FOR YOUR NEW HOME * Lawn Mowers * Faucets * BBQs * Furniture * Spas & Pools * Flowers * Lamps * Vacuums * Major Appliances * Plants * Tools * Wallpaper Go to http://home.ebay.com On 2005-07-07 12:25:19, FraudEliminator Team writes: And the winner is...eBay We often get asked which company is targeted the most by phishers. Not surprisingly, the result is PayPal (28%), followed very closely by eBay (23%). Taken together---since, after all, PayPal is part of eBay---this means that eBay is the victim of over half of all phishing attacks conducted worldwide. A whopping 51%. What's the extent of the damage to eBay? Its reputation and its method of communicating with members are both in jeopardy. Anytime its members get an e-mail from eBay or PayPal, they will worry whether or not it is real. This is going to make it very difficult for eBay to legitimately communicate with its nearly 100 million users, which can't be a good thing. |
