Amazon.com Phish Alert

Those who use Amazon.com for shopping are being targeted by a false e-mail which insists that one's account information be up-dated. At the link, the customer is asked for not only credit card information but also one's PIN. This latter request is posed as an additional layer of security. Failure to supply this information withing forty-eight hours is stated as reason to have one's account terminated. I made contact with Amazon and they are checking into this, having assured me this is not from them. So, good people, do not respond to this e-mail. The header on the one I received read: "Please verify and update your Amazon account."

It's probably Anne Coulter's way of enjoying down time.

and other misspelled institutions. The ones from Paypal look rather authentic: what tipped me off was the fact that I've never had a Paypal account.

Sometimes I get a few seconds' worth of entertainment by looking for grammatical errors, but mostly I just delete them unread. I can see how they can scare people, though.

The only time I took any action was when I got one from a teeny-tiny specialty company I occasionally do on-line business with: it was such an unlikely phishing source that I contacted the company directly (not by responding to the phisher): turned out someone got ahold of their on-line catalog mailing list and was harrassing their customers.

Bottom line: don't reply to these messages directly - if you are concerned, go to the company's own web site and let them know someone is impersonating them.

As soon as I suspected what was going on, I made contact with Amazon and my Internet provider. They both ask to be told when something like this occurs. Amazon, in particular, takes it very seriously.

Boy did you have my hopes set high this morning...

I would feel sorry for mis-leading you if I had the slightest idea what you are talking about.

Phish. Same name as the trolling method.

DAMN!!!



Keith’s Barbeque Central

...I'd give at least half to DU and buy a 75-foot yacht with the other half. I usually respond to them with fictitious names and addresses. Some poor guy whose name actually is Heywood Jablome might be getting a lot of mail some day.

Tip: Credit card numbers are 16 digits long. Random numbers are fine. They do have an algorithm that checks the credit card number you give them with the 3 digit security code on the "back of the card." Their program will reject your card number unless it matches the algorithm. Here's how you get around that - just increase the last digit of your "credit card number" by one until it works. It's all keyed on the last digit of your CCN.

Perhaps I should delete this message since it would appear that everyone is already aware that this happens. Since this is the first of the type I had received - and I am a regular shopper on line and have been so for a number of years - I assumed it might be of value to the community. Alas, I was mistaken.

Some folks get a little blase', it's true, but for the folks who aren't computer whizzes, it does help to know.

Thanks for thinking of everyone. :hi:

fsc

Remember when 'Phish' meant driving three states away, taking a bunch of mushrooms and shaking your ass?

I miss the band :shrug:

I mourn the change in the accepted meaning of the word 'vulgar'. Try as I may, I cannot persuade people it means 'of the common people, the masses'.

In fact, I have received two of these in the last month. Last summer, I was bombarded with these messages from PayPal and EBay. But since I don't have an EBay account, I knew they were phishing.

One good way to tell if it is genuine is to reply. It will come back as undeliverable if it's fake. Of course, that just results in getting more phish emails from the same people but you can always just delete them.

That is an excellent suggestion. One of the things arousing my suspicion on the one I got was the lack of the Amazon name in the address which showed up when I tried to investigate.

This crap is scary.

or so they said. :P

Thanks for the public service!

Who is going to reveal his PIN to a stranger. Although I have to admire the effort of trying to convince me this was extra security for my protection. Heh!