another lowlife scam
Thursday, 20 November 2003 11:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
miriam_eI received this in my email tonight:
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From: "PayPal.com" <donotreply@paypal.com>
Subject: YOUR PAYPAL.COM ACCOUNT EXPIRES
Dear PayPal member,
PayPal would like to inform you about some important information regarding your PayPal account. This account, which is associated with the email address
miriam
werple.net.au
will be expiring within five business days. We apologize for any inconvenience that this may cause, but this is occurring because all of our customers are required to update their account settings with their personal information.
We are taking these actions because we are implementing a new security policy on our website to insure everyone's absolute privacy. To avoid any interruption in PayPal services then you will need to run the application that we have sent with this email (see attachment) and follow the instructions. Please do not send your personal information through email, as it will not be as secure.
IMPORTANT! If you do not update your information with our secure application within the next five business days then we will be forced to deactivate your account and you will not be able to use your PayPal account any longer. It is strongly recommended that you take a few minutes out of your busy day and complete this now.
DO NOT REPLY TO THIS MESSAGE VIA EMAIL! This mail is sent by an automated message system and the reply will not be received.
Thank you for using PayPal.
ihoivnov
Attached file: "www.paypal.com.scr"
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It all looks harmless and above-board right? Wrong. The file attached to it called "www.paypal.com.scr" is almost certainly a key logger that would watch my computer while I enter my details into PayPal. Now what use would some scum-sucking lowlife have for my PayPal password and account details? Hmmm? Well they wouldn't have much use for mine because I live below the poverty level and never have much money in the bank... but of course that wouldn't stop them taking what little I have anyway.
I don't use Microsoft's terrible "Outlook" for my email so I am safe from the file attachment unless I actually clicked on it to activate it. Outlook has the awful security flaw of running attachments just by looking at their associated email -- incredibly dangerous! (There is apparently a security patch you can download from Microsoft to fix that nasty behavior though.) If you use Outlook and have received one of these emails then I wouldn't go logging onto any important sites until you found out whether you now have a key logger watching and reporting on you.
-----
From: "PayPal.com" <donotreply@paypal.com>
Subject: YOUR PAYPAL.COM ACCOUNT EXPIRES
Dear PayPal member,
PayPal would like to inform you about some important information regarding your PayPal account. This account, which is associated with the email address
miriam
werple.net.auwill be expiring within five business days. We apologize for any inconvenience that this may cause, but this is occurring because all of our customers are required to update their account settings with their personal information.
We are taking these actions because we are implementing a new security policy on our website to insure everyone's absolute privacy. To avoid any interruption in PayPal services then you will need to run the application that we have sent with this email (see attachment) and follow the instructions. Please do not send your personal information through email, as it will not be as secure.
IMPORTANT! If you do not update your information with our secure application within the next five business days then we will be forced to deactivate your account and you will not be able to use your PayPal account any longer. It is strongly recommended that you take a few minutes out of your busy day and complete this now.
DO NOT REPLY TO THIS MESSAGE VIA EMAIL! This mail is sent by an automated message system and the reply will not be received.
Thank you for using PayPal.
ihoivnov
Attached file: "www.paypal.com.scr"
-----
It all looks harmless and above-board right? Wrong. The file attached to it called "www.paypal.com.scr" is almost certainly a key logger that would watch my computer while I enter my details into PayPal. Now what use would some scum-sucking lowlife have for my PayPal password and account details? Hmmm? Well they wouldn't have much use for mine because I live below the poverty level and never have much money in the bank... but of course that wouldn't stop them taking what little I have anyway.
I don't use Microsoft's terrible "Outlook" for my email so I am safe from the file attachment unless I actually clicked on it to activate it. Outlook has the awful security flaw of running attachments just by looking at their associated email -- incredibly dangerous! (There is apparently a security patch you can download from Microsoft to fix that nasty behavior though.) If you use Outlook and have received one of these emails then I wouldn't go logging onto any important sites until you found out whether you now have a key logger watching and reporting on you.
paypal
Date: 2003-12-02 04:21 am (UTC)