“Spoofed” on the Internet.
Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2004 2:43 am
Hi all,
I just received this from an online friend, and am passing it on.
Don’t be “spoofed” on the Internet. You very well may loose your identity like I did. It happened so quickly, so professionally, I never knew what happened until 24 hours later. You would think I would have known better, I had heard not to give out information that is too personal, had received e-mails about it. Yet I was still fooled by a familiar looking business. It was from EBay, or so I was to believe. A secure site, someone I do business with. I trusted them, felt safe with them, never had any problems with them.
Then one day I received an e-mail. ‘We have suspended your account. Please click on the link below to clear up this matter’. I panicked… what’s wrong with my account? I don’t need any problems with my account! I sell on EBay, am waiting right now for a payment on an item I have sold. I buy on EBay, I am waiting for auctions to end so I can make payment and receive my items. I must get this cleared up straight away. And so I clicked on the link below. That’s where it all began. I was quickly whisked away to EBay’s web site, or so I thought. It looked just like EBay, there is the space for my user name, so I typed it in, and there is the space for my password, very important, and so I typed that in. Up pops the registration form. Ah here we go, this is what they need, updated registration information, perhaps there was incorrect info and I just need to fill it in again, this wont take long. I filled in the boxes. Then there was some very personal questions…. SSN? Hum… well this is a secure site, this should be okay, bit strange though, but I want to get my account up and running again, so here we go, and then when everything was all filled in I hit the process button. A bar was flashing across my screen, showing that it was sending the info through. Then a white page came up, saying it was ‘unable to process my information at this time’ and to please check the following items to see if there is a problem with my system. The only problem was that I had just been “spoofed”. I had been taken. I wasn’t EBay. I was on a site that was a mirror image of EBay. Someone took painstaking time to reflect EBay to a T. I went onto EBay the next day, and went onto Live Chat. I asked the tech. person why my account was suspended. ‘Your account isn’t suspended, there’s no problem that I can see’. I asked “then why did EBay ask all those questions? Why such personal questions?”. Tech “we would never ask you those questions, please send the email to us and we will investigate it’.
Then I called a friend who knows a lot about computers and is in the security business. They confirmed that there was a problem, and that yes, my identity had been stolen. They sent me very important information. I got on the phone and started doing the items listed below. Took just about an hour on the phone, then a trip to the bank and police station. I put up as many walls around my identity as possible. I wanted the criminals to be stopped in their tracks. This lady may have been spoofed, but she wont be taken. It just goes to show; even someone who knows better can be “spoofed”. Be careful, question those you trust. Print out the page below and keep in a file somewhere, just in case you or a friend needs it someday. Please pass this email onto friends and family. Get the word and information out to the community.
Fraud Alert
What would you do if you found someone had stolen your identity?
First recover as much as you can from the “oh no” sinking feeling that has just washed over your entire body. Next get out all your credit cards and start calling. But not to cancel them. Why? Because whoever just stole your identity will just change your address and phone and request new ones. Remember they are YOU now. They can call and do all sorts of stuff to you. But did you know that you can protect yourself BEFORE anything devastating happens? There is a little secret the credit card companies are keeping from you. Why they are doing this I don’t know, because it’s the best-kept secret I have heard of in a long time. You can actually assign a secret password to your credit card. YES you can. It’s free, it’s easy, it’s private and NO ONE can do anything with your credit card over the phone with the credit card company without it. They can’t even change the password with out it. So even if someone gets all your other info they cannot call in and do any of the above mentioned.
Second is to call your bank and request a new debit card, let them know what has happened and get it canceled fast. Also walk into your bank and have new checking and savings account numbers issued, and alert them to the fact that there may be criminal activities in the future with your old account number and to put a note in your file. You will need to order new checks as well.
Third is to call the credit-reporting agency. You can call Equifax at 1-800-685-1111(www.Equifax.com) and they will alert Experian and Trans Union. They have an automated system and it’s easy to follow. You simply put a Fraud Alert (choice #4 on the menu) on your credit report. With your identity they can order a copy of your report and start credit up under all your cards. You will receive your credit report within 7 to 10 days and it will include a special 1-800 number to talk directly with a fraud representative. With this phone call you will have all three alerted and if anyone tries to start up a credit account in your name they will call you before anything can take place. Be sure to call the 800 number that comes with your credit report from them and check to make sure the fraud alert has properly gone through, the police told me that sometimes you have to check to make sure.
Fourth call the Federal Trade Commission Fraud Alert Hotline at 1-877-438-4338. Here you can request two publications from them concerning Identity Theft, what it’s about and what to do. Here they will also direct your to their web site.
And lastly walk into your local police station with any printed evidence you have (like the e-mail you were “spoofed” with and report this as well. They actually have an officer dedicated to handling Identity Theft and believe it or not, he or she is swamped with calls. I know because the officer I tried to talk to said he was so swamped that I needed to come back later. You need to do this just in case someone has a fake driver’s license made up in your name and they are pulled over the officer will be alerter to the fact. Also this will be counted toward the statistics as a crime and maybe legislation will do more to protect us.
I just received this from an online friend, and am passing it on.
Don’t be “spoofed” on the Internet. You very well may loose your identity like I did. It happened so quickly, so professionally, I never knew what happened until 24 hours later. You would think I would have known better, I had heard not to give out information that is too personal, had received e-mails about it. Yet I was still fooled by a familiar looking business. It was from EBay, or so I was to believe. A secure site, someone I do business with. I trusted them, felt safe with them, never had any problems with them.
Then one day I received an e-mail. ‘We have suspended your account. Please click on the link below to clear up this matter’. I panicked… what’s wrong with my account? I don’t need any problems with my account! I sell on EBay, am waiting right now for a payment on an item I have sold. I buy on EBay, I am waiting for auctions to end so I can make payment and receive my items. I must get this cleared up straight away. And so I clicked on the link below. That’s where it all began. I was quickly whisked away to EBay’s web site, or so I thought. It looked just like EBay, there is the space for my user name, so I typed it in, and there is the space for my password, very important, and so I typed that in. Up pops the registration form. Ah here we go, this is what they need, updated registration information, perhaps there was incorrect info and I just need to fill it in again, this wont take long. I filled in the boxes. Then there was some very personal questions…. SSN? Hum… well this is a secure site, this should be okay, bit strange though, but I want to get my account up and running again, so here we go, and then when everything was all filled in I hit the process button. A bar was flashing across my screen, showing that it was sending the info through. Then a white page came up, saying it was ‘unable to process my information at this time’ and to please check the following items to see if there is a problem with my system. The only problem was that I had just been “spoofed”. I had been taken. I wasn’t EBay. I was on a site that was a mirror image of EBay. Someone took painstaking time to reflect EBay to a T. I went onto EBay the next day, and went onto Live Chat. I asked the tech. person why my account was suspended. ‘Your account isn’t suspended, there’s no problem that I can see’. I asked “then why did EBay ask all those questions? Why such personal questions?”. Tech “we would never ask you those questions, please send the email to us and we will investigate it’.
Then I called a friend who knows a lot about computers and is in the security business. They confirmed that there was a problem, and that yes, my identity had been stolen. They sent me very important information. I got on the phone and started doing the items listed below. Took just about an hour on the phone, then a trip to the bank and police station. I put up as many walls around my identity as possible. I wanted the criminals to be stopped in their tracks. This lady may have been spoofed, but she wont be taken. It just goes to show; even someone who knows better can be “spoofed”. Be careful, question those you trust. Print out the page below and keep in a file somewhere, just in case you or a friend needs it someday. Please pass this email onto friends and family. Get the word and information out to the community.
Fraud Alert
What would you do if you found someone had stolen your identity?
First recover as much as you can from the “oh no” sinking feeling that has just washed over your entire body. Next get out all your credit cards and start calling. But not to cancel them. Why? Because whoever just stole your identity will just change your address and phone and request new ones. Remember they are YOU now. They can call and do all sorts of stuff to you. But did you know that you can protect yourself BEFORE anything devastating happens? There is a little secret the credit card companies are keeping from you. Why they are doing this I don’t know, because it’s the best-kept secret I have heard of in a long time. You can actually assign a secret password to your credit card. YES you can. It’s free, it’s easy, it’s private and NO ONE can do anything with your credit card over the phone with the credit card company without it. They can’t even change the password with out it. So even if someone gets all your other info they cannot call in and do any of the above mentioned.
Second is to call your bank and request a new debit card, let them know what has happened and get it canceled fast. Also walk into your bank and have new checking and savings account numbers issued, and alert them to the fact that there may be criminal activities in the future with your old account number and to put a note in your file. You will need to order new checks as well.
Third is to call the credit-reporting agency. You can call Equifax at 1-800-685-1111(www.Equifax.com) and they will alert Experian and Trans Union. They have an automated system and it’s easy to follow. You simply put a Fraud Alert (choice #4 on the menu) on your credit report. With your identity they can order a copy of your report and start credit up under all your cards. You will receive your credit report within 7 to 10 days and it will include a special 1-800 number to talk directly with a fraud representative. With this phone call you will have all three alerted and if anyone tries to start up a credit account in your name they will call you before anything can take place. Be sure to call the 800 number that comes with your credit report from them and check to make sure the fraud alert has properly gone through, the police told me that sometimes you have to check to make sure.
Fourth call the Federal Trade Commission Fraud Alert Hotline at 1-877-438-4338. Here you can request two publications from them concerning Identity Theft, what it’s about and what to do. Here they will also direct your to their web site.
And lastly walk into your local police station with any printed evidence you have (like the e-mail you were “spoofed” with and report this as well. They actually have an officer dedicated to handling Identity Theft and believe it or not, he or she is swamped with calls. I know because the officer I tried to talk to said he was so swamped that I needed to come back later. You need to do this just in case someone has a fake driver’s license made up in your name and they are pulled over the officer will be alerter to the fact. Also this will be counted toward the statistics as a crime and maybe legislation will do more to protect us.
Live and learn, 
Carol Ann
