I Almost Got Spoofed!

For those of you not familiar with the term "spoofed", it's when you receive an email that resembles a company like your banking institution, but it is a fraud. They are usually asking for money or information. I got spoofed this way. I put up a laptop for sale on eBay. About an hour later I get informed on official looking eBay site, that my laptop had been sold. I then received another email from PayPal, again looking completely legit, that money had been transferred and I would get paid when the item was shipped. But here's where the guy screwed up, I then get a third email this time from the person who bought it stating he was a U.S. citizen currently doing business in England. That the laptop was for his son, who lived in Nigeria, and that I needed to ship right away. He said he even added an extra $150.00 for shipping. Well, I gave PayPal a call and no they never received any money from anyone for me on any purchases. So I sent them a copy of the webpage I received to their spoof department. Then I had to contact eBay because it had shown up as being bought. Again I talked with their security department, they reimbursed my advertising and I put it back for sale. Now here is where someone could get tripped up. PayPal will not send you the money until they have proof that you have shipped, and rightly so..therefore if I had shipped right away I would have been out a computer and no money. Again these purchase request web pages I got looked exactly like eBay and PayPal but they were obviously not. So be careful out there..hope this helps raise awareness.

Fake Scams to Watch Out For

I recently advertised my services on Craigslist.com. What I did not realize is all the scams and spams I would start receiving. The first one was in the form of an email. Very innocent looking simply asking if I would like to get a lead on some work. Well, of course replied "yes, I would". She in turn (her name was Jasmine) sent me a email back with a link. I clicked on the link and it brought me to one of those "Get rich in two weeks" websites..pissed me off to no end..then I got another one form a guy who says he's in vegas and has eight computers for me to load windows, office suite and anti-virus. He also stated he a packing company ready to ship if I was interested. Well that one wasn't too hard to figure out. Loading that software on a computer can be done by any technician on the corner, so why would someone in Las Vegas be asking someone in Georgia to do such a simple job. I never responded. Finally, here's one off of one of my favorite sites at www.technibble.com;
Fake Check Scam: The way this scam works is the that scammer will email you about purchasing a large amount of hardware. Since you are a smart person, you are obviously not going to send them anything until the check clears. The scammer will send you the fake check but the amount will be for more than you originally quoted. Shortly afterwards they will say that they accidentally sent you too much and ask if you could send them back the difference. So, you send the difference and a couple of days the check doesn’t clear because its fake. The scammer was never after the hardware, they were after the difference on the fake check and that’s how they get you.
So be careful out there, there's a lot of people trying to separate you from your money. If you want to get involved in catching some of these scumbags check out www.scam419.com; they set the scammers up and keep them busy so they not bothering someone else. They also have a "Wall of Shame" where they convinced scammers to send them their pictures. Great site check it out...take care out there. And remember "If your memory is a hog; call BullDog.