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Guest post by: Dr Don Yates Sr PhD Become an Author

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At sites which appear on candies, cereal boxes, ads in magazines, online, etc. as they often require date-of-birth, name, address, phone, e-mail, etc. for the purposes of processing and awarding.

Their privacy policy and/or terms inevitably contain either an escape clause (if not a complete lie) allowing the eventual abuse and/or redirection of any information gathered. The data compiled may also be assimilated and combined with that obtained from other sources to complete your personal identity profile.

Instead, consider using a card into which you deposit the amount of money required for your desired transactions. AAA Everyday Funds is an example of one such card.

Don’t give Social security number, account number, DOB, etc.,out for ANY reason, if you can help it. While this is often unavoidable on some legitimate calls, (such as to the IRS, your doctoror your bank), do it ONLY on calls initiated by you, to numbers obtained, BY YOU, from the institution or off valid documents you KNOW are from THEM.

Surveys/questionnaires/product registration optional sections, as they are gathering personal information such as household income, credit cards possessed, family size, medical needs, buying habits, etc.

On line, registeringor installing software, etc., watch out for and unclick the boxes that show up preset with a check, dotor "X" in it which offer "additional info or services". They inevitably set you up for a deluge of unwanted e-mail, plus propagate your profile info to their sites (and their associates, and theirs... and so on).

Rather use pre-paid cards or try to use cash, to make store purchases. The purchases you make get fed into massive databases, which could conceivably be used to your disadvantage.

For free samples, enter contests in Malls, play online gambling games, send off for "free" merchandise, or believe"You are a winner", "You have won", "You have been selected to receive", "free trial offer", "no risk/no obligation offer - cancel at any time", etc. You may never receive anything at all, or get a cheap piece of useless merchandise, but at the very least you can rest assured that you've been entered on at least one mass-mailing list, not to mention guaranteedto be given abundant similar opportunities with more advanced scams in the future.

Referral and family/acquaintance list requests, which when completed offer you a bonus or prize, even from YOUR CHILD'S SCHOOL. The value is neither worth that of the collected personal data you (or you children) provide OR the time required to complete the list, not to mentionthe possible consequences to the unfortunatelisted.

The vacation/cruise package deals you get in the mail, at the mall, off the office fax, or unsolicited on the web. Your package will not be what it was presented to be, have numerous restrictions and obligations and your cost will ultimately be higher than if you had purchased it normally through a reputable agency. Crimes of Persuasion

REPORT THE INCIDENT TO THE PROPER AUTHORITIES:

If you have given out your credit card information, contact your credit company right away. The sooner a company knows your account may have been compromised, the easier it will be for them to help protect you.

Contact the company that you believe was forged. Remember to contact the organization directly, not through the e-mail message you received. Or call the organization and speak to a customer service representative.

CHANGE THE PASSWORDS ON ALL YOUR ONLINE ACCOUNTS.

Many people use the same password for multiple accounts. Start with passwords that are related to financial institutions or personal information. If you think someone has accessed your e-mail account, change your password immediately. Review your credit reports, your bank, credit card statements, and your credit report monthly for unexplained charges, inquiries or activity that you did not initiate.

Finally, make sure you use the latest products, such as anti-spam and anti-phishing capabilities in e-mail services, phishing filters in Web browsers and other services to help warn and protect you from online scams. UK Times Online

The FBI today warned the public against three separate Internet scams that continue to flourish through spam e-mails. The warning comes after the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) received a rising number of complaints from citizens over the past few weeks.

In one scam, an e-mail recipient receives an electronic greeting card containing malware (malicious software). The cards, which are also referred to as e-cards or postcards, are being sent via spam. Like many other Internet fraud schemes, the perpetrators use social engineering tactics to entice the victim, claiming the card is from a family member or friend. Although there have been variations in the spam message and attached malware, generally the spam directs the recipient to click the link provided in the email to view their e-card. Upon clicking the link, the recipient is unknowingly taken to a malicious web page.

In another scam, fraudulent e-mails misrepresent the FBI and/or Director Robert S. Mueller III and give the appearance of legitimacy due to the usage of pictures of the FBI Director, seal, letter head, and/or banners. The types of schemes utilizing the Director's name and/or FBI are lottery endorsements and inheritance notifications.

The third is spam e-mail, which claim to be from an official of the U.S. military sent on behalf of American soldiers stationed overseas. The scam e-mails vary in content; however, the general theme of each is to request personal information and/or funds from the individual receiving the e-mail.

These spam e-mail messages are hoaxes and should be immediately deleted. Consumers need to be wary of unsolicited e-mails that request them to take any action even if that means just clicking on an attachment. It is possible that by "double-clicking" on attachments to these messages, recipients will cause malicious software — e.g., viruses, keystroke loggers, or other Trojan horse programs—to be launched on their computers. FBI

The sender information shown in e-mails (the "From" field) can be spoofed easily, though nowadays many domains have the Sender Policy Framework implemented, which helps prevent the e-mail spoofing. This technique is commonly used by Spammers to hide the origin of their e-mails and leads to problems such as misdirected bounces (i.e. e-mail spam backscatter).

eBay sent this message to Dr Don Yates Sr PhD (drdony01).

Your registered name is included to show this message originated from eBay..

This member has a question for you. Do not respond to the sender if this message requests that you complete the transaction outside of eBay. This type of offer is against eBay policy, may be fraudulent, and is not covered by buyer protection programs. Learn More.

Dear drdony01,

Hello

I was just looking at your auction and have a few questions. Do you have a working PayPal account? How much you are willing sell it? Please be reasonable I am very interested. Please include your regular email to your response because I don`t check my eBay often, so we can talk through email. Thanks

This is an exact duplicate of another message from another Member. You acted on this alert in My Messages, but it may still require your attention

eBay sent this message to Dr DonYates Sr PhD(drdony01).

Your registered name is included to show this message originated from eBay. Learn more.

Dear drdony01 (drdony@gmail.com),

Our records show that you recently contacted or received messages from weatherby3cycling through eBay's messaging system. This account was recently found to have been accessed by an unauthorized third party, who may have used the account in an attempt to defraud other members.

We've taken action to restore this account to the original owner, but wanted to let you know to be suspicious of any communication you may have received from them. Nothing is wrong with your account at this time – this message is just being sent as a precaution. If you have received any messages from weatherby3cycling that appears suspicious, please feel free to forward them to us at spoof@ebay.com for review.

I attempted to invoice the buyer per routine eBay practices; however, eBay had already blocked the buyer for resolution of conflicts. Upon further investigation the buyer was no longer a registered member. In fact, she was registered for only 1 day under that name

The buyer contacted me directly via email with a Romania Address. I followed-up with buyer to confirm shipping address and the status of the payment. Buyer advises me that payment had already been made and to look for the PayPal notice of payment. Confirms a new address in Nigeria

Urgent Matter: birthday present for her partner and she wanted to know the shipping charges (when the ad said free shipping)

Looked very official with PayPal‘s logo and propaganda, etc. the following exceptions: From Address: linuxtech2@gmail.com; on behalf of; services@Paypal.com [paypalshipment@mail2pal.com]

Subject line was wrong

JanetXXX has sent you an eBay item Payment with PayPal (Routing Code: C840-L001-Q999-T5350)

Instead of “Notification of Payment Received”, It said that the payment was received for the cost of the item, and included an extra-ordinary shipping fee of $ 300 (I guess that was an inducement for me to act quickly – and ship the item). Shipping address confirmed to the Nigeria address.

However, the payment withheld to my PayPal account pending my shipping confirmation – which I declined to ship the item without advance payment, per eBay practices.

Learn the procedures of say eBay, pay attention and verify everything before you send your money. I looked up mail2pal.com in Whois.com and the owner was not related to PayPal

Here are some things to watch for: eBay will never ask you to provide account numbers, passwords, or other confidential information through email. If we do request information from you, a copy of the email will also appear in the My Messages section of my eBay. If you don't see a copy there, the email isn't authentic.

In addition, spoof emails often begin with a general greeting such as "Welcome eBay User," rather than your name or user ID. They claim that eBay is updating its files or accounts -- this is a common tactic of spoof email contain an "urgent" warning, telling you that your account is in jeopardy and you won't be able to buy or sell on eBay if you don't provide personal information immediately.

Even links that go to real-looking pages can be fake. Never click a link in a suspicious email. Sign in through the usual process. If you suspect an email is fake, please forward it to us at spoof@ebay.com. You can learn more about recognizing and dealing with spoof emails. Need more help? Contact us directly using the customer support options on the right side of the page.

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Referred by: http://kooiii.com

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