Ahhh yes, New and Improved PHISHING.

      There is a new email running through the Net.

      It comes looking, as always, with official looking logos and symbols on it from any one of several actual banks, Ebay® and/or PayPal® themselves.

      But this one, instead of asking you to click on a link in the email (which most people have learned is NOT a good idea) so they can rip you off, it asks you to call a real world phone number (in the two examples the Desk came across one had a Southern California area code, the other a Toll Free Number) to verify your account number. And of course, once you enter your credit card or bank account number, you will be ripped off just as cleanly.

      IT IS A SCAM! THEY WILL STEAL FROM YOU!

      DO NOT CLICK ON LINKS IN EMAILS ASKING FOR FINANCIAL INFORMATION.

      DO NOT CALL THE PHONE NUMBER IN AN EMAIL ASKING FOR FINANCIAL INFORMATION.

      If you have any questions about your bank account, call your bank at the number On Your Statement or in the Phone Book!

      If your bank has a question about your account and they call you. Be polite, be professional, then hang up on them and call their customer service office back at the number on your statement. That, or drive down to the local branch and talk to the person behind a counter.

      For some further tips on email and online fraud check out the pages from another frequent target of the scammers The Bank of America on Email Fraud and Online Fraud. BoA main site address: http://www.bankofamerica.com/

      The National Consumers League has issued an in depth report and "call for action" to deal with phishing scams and the criminals behind them. You can download the PDF file from the following site: http://www.nclnet.org/news/2006/Phishing_Report_03162006.htm

      Also Visit FRAUD.ORG

      One further note: DrLeftover DOES NOT HAVE a Paypal account under that name. Fascinating eh?

SAMPLE SCAM SPAM BELOW
Links and Phone Numbers have been disabled. Some other editing done for this posting.

FR:   Paypal@(spoofed address).com
TO:   drleftover@ some email box or other
DT:   2006-07-09
RE:   Confirm Your Paypal online account

DrLeftover: Please respond promptly to ensure your account remains active and that you continue to enjoy maximum use of your paypal member privileges.

We at PayPal are committed to maintaining a safe environment for its community of customers. To protect the security of your account, PayPal employs advanced security systems and our anti-fraud teams regularly screen the PayPal system for unusual activity or possible misuse.

We are contacting you to remind you that on 21 Jun 2006 our Account Review Team identified some suspicious activity in your account. In accordance with PayPal's User Agreement and to ensure that your account has not been compromised, access to your account was limited. Your account access will remain limited until this issue has been resolved.

Please call our member services office at 1-888-7 (bunch of numbers) to verify your account information and restore it to full service.

Thank you for continuing to use Paypal

(paypal logo which was active link to an address that was NOT to the real paypal)

end scam-spam

[NOTE: The Desk Is NOT affiliated with ANYBODY listed above, its not even sure its real paypal account is active. Thank you ]

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