Thread: HEADS UP - Probable Computer Scam

Thanks Chesand,
Yep definitely a scam. It also shows that maybe English is not their first language. Why am I not surprised.

Originally Posted by Mulgabill

Thanks Chesand,
Yep definitely a scam. It also shows that maybe English is not their first language. Why am I not surprised.

The poor English was the first thing that made me wary. No tracking number either.

I have been getting at least 2 Emails from PayPal (?) telling me that there has been some abnormal activity with my account and that they have put a "hold" on my account until I "sign in" and it will be sorted. PayPal (the real one) have notified me that if they want to contact me they will always call me by name where as the scam is addressing me as Dear Customer.

I am just annoyed at their persistence- at least 1 or 2 Emails per day for more than 2 months. The address these are coming from is supposedly from Luxumberg not a USA address

My email provider is GMail and I get very few of these scam emails as GMail is very good at weeding them out and they go straight in to the Spam folder.

If by chance they do get to my Inbox all I have to do is mark them as Spam and it is unusual to get a repeat one after that.

If you are using gmail, it will have most of the support in filtering out spam. They now also have a new block sender feature. I use gmail to host my business email addresses as well.

I have the Spam filter on my Bigpond email and this is the first scam email that I have received in ages. A friend has had her email list hacked and I suspect that this is where it has originated.

Originally Posted by Chesand

I have the Spam filter on my Bigpond email and this is the first scam email that I have received in ages. A friend has had her email list hacked and I suspect that this is where it has originated.

Yep, that'll do it.

Another scam doing the rounds is an email supposedly from the Australian Federal Police for traffic or parking infringement.

The email has an infringement number but does not mention a vehicle (or registration number) but has a couple of links.
It also allows you to unsubscribe.

Originally Posted by Handyjack

It also allows you to unsubscribe.

Don't ever use the unsubscribe link for it verifies that they have a live email address. You'll be on more scammers list very soon if you do.

Peter.

The scam that nearly caught me was a bogus Telstra account asking me to login to accept a refund on my overcharged account. At the time Telstra had charged me to replace the copper line from the junction box up the street to the box at my boundary. Hardly something I should pay for. Any way I convinced the complaints officer that I shouldn't pay for it so I was expecting a refund at the time the scam email arrived.

Paul

Got another one today (different ISP) and the holding charge is now down to $1-06 a day. If it keeps going, they might offer to pay me for keeping my parcel.

Always, always check the URL that the various buttons point to. I have been getting a variety of different scam emails and I have noticed several things in common with them. Firstly the 'from' email address does not match the alleged sender, then all the various embedded buttons point to one or more servers that are different to the originating server - for some reason they are nearly all somewhere in Russia or at least have xxx.xxx.ru in the URL. I think clicking on any of the buttons would immediately send you to a malware 'delivery' site.

You should be able to see where the various links/buttons point to by hovering your mouse cursor over them, the URL will appear either on a bar on your browser/email reader, or as a tool tip depending on how you have yours set up.

Rule of Thumb........anyone offering a Refund by email or phone call for that matter is a Scam.

If you are truly entitled to a refund from a Government Dept. or Company.....they will send you a letter by post....that way it will take ages before they have to make the refund due to our poor postal service.

One of the phone scams I have received a few times and this one is laughable.......

Caller is from overseas (I have a 6 th sense about their accents.......). I am told that someone at this phone number was involved in a car accident in the past 3 months.

Very vague on detail as they can not tell me the ACTUAL date of the accident.......what my Car Make or Rego was or WHERE the accident happened BUT they have my phone number. So unless I committed an horrendous Hit & Run in a car emblazened with my phone number on it (I don't own one like that BTW), I don't see that I have anything to worry about.

I just tell them this is rubbish and what's the weather like in Mumbai this evening...then hang up.

I always Google anything suspicious not that I get that much spam these days as between Gmail and Bigpond they exterminate most of it. Some time ago I was receiving invoices for something to do with a web server and it appeared legitimate and perhaps was a hangover from when I had Clearvue but I never responded though it seemed legitimate from all I could find at the time. The best one was from a bank which I never had any dealings with and that got a good laugh.