Feeling very stupid

[fiddler]

This message is sent as a word of warning. A few days ago I received an e mail which looked as if it had come from Amazon. I said that my ID had been used to purchase a item and if I had not make the purchase I needed to update my Amazon account. This I did and later on a visit to my bank I discovered it was a scam. Luckily nothing was taken out of my account but I ended up having to get a new card and to close my Amazon account. I am usually so careful on line and feel so stupid for falling for it so if you happen to get an email supposedly from Amazon DO NOT OPEN IT

[lavenderbee]

Thanks for this warning. I can understand how you feel as it is so easy to be taken in. I have had several emails asking me to update details or change password & such like. If the start of the email does not include my name I know it is not correct. If it starts Dear Customer or something like that it is not genuine. Several times I have emailed the company concerned asking them if they did send it. If they did, all well & good but I realised after a few times they each said they would give my full title if it was from them.

It is very difficult to keep up with these scams. One year we had emails saying our PCs were faulty & for them to correct them to send money. Several people in a nearby town took it to their local PC repairer who found nothing wrong but in turn contacted the local newspapers. One lady did send money via card number but luckily her bank would not honour the card payment because they were not happy with the whole thing.

I got in a state last year as someone emailed me to ask for a copy of a teddy bear knitting pattern I had on my PC as she knitted for charity. I was horrified. It was a free pattern from a knitting magazine & she could have easily have got it anyway. This pattern was put up free as it was a year old as are most of their free patterns.

I let people on the knitting forum I am on know to keep things off their PC which they do not want others to see. I do not keep things on cloud to whatever now. Delete once used. A few weeks later another knitter added that someone had got into her saved things & altered a document Microsoft had told her it had been done. She felt as uptight as I did.

Hope you soon feel better as it is a horrible thing to have to go through.

[Allyn]

Never ever, ever, ever, ever click on a link in an email that came to you out of the blue. (Yes, we click the email link when we request a password reset or when we confirm a subscription request, but those emails we expect because we initiated them.) If you get an email that looks familar -- from your bank, from an online retailer, from a game publisher, et al -- informing you of a problem with your account, instead of clicking on the link in the email, use your browser to log into your account the way you normally do. It is so easy to create a fake website that looks exactly like the real one and if you click the link in the email, you don't realize you are going to the fake website instead of the real one. It's an easy way for crooks to get your credit card information and enough personal information to steal your identity.

I hope that feeling passes, hun. It's a lesson learned. You're that much more savvy now.

[Squirrel]

Those dishonest people sure love to try and get us to tell them our details. So glad you were able to thwart them fiddler.

[ZlayaKoshka]

Thanks for your warning!

I know all too well how you feel - and even though I too try to be careful, there are some scam emails that get to my nerves earlier than they get to my brains. The last one that got me was the message about a complaint filed against my website, prompting me to enter my credentials to view that complaint. Luckily I realized that was scam only in a couple of minutes after, and was able to change my password quickly before the account was stolen. But my, that was scary!

[wendywombat]

Three times this year we've had to change our visa and bank cards!!! Once with our French bank card which had been used to purchase nearly 1,000 € worth of goods!!! Caused us no end of problems. Credit cards ave also been used fraudulently...more problems!

Each time we've got the money back....but we just have to be vigilant, don't we!
Leaves a nasty taste in the mouth.

[Serinde]

These fraudulent emails come through all the time, and I get so angry. How DARE they??

You might consider also letting the legitimate businesses know if you receive one of these emails. They are very interested to know who is playing around with their good names, and often have whole departments now which deal with scams. Every now and then a "boiler house" is uncovered and people are sent to court. So it's worth that effort.

[LadyS]

Never ever, ever, ever, ever click on a link in an email that came to you out of the blue. (Yes, we click the email link when we request a password reset or when we confirm a subscription request, but those emails we expect because we initiated them.) If you get an email that looks familar -- from your bank, from an online retailer, from a game publisher, et al -- informing you of a problem with your account, instead of clicking on the link in the email, use your browser to log into your account the way you normally do. It is so easy to create a fake website that looks exactly like the real one and if you click the link in the email, you don't realize you are going to the fake website instead of the real one. It's an easy way for crooks to get your credit card information and enough personal information to steal your identity.

I hope that feeling passes, hun. It's a lesson learned. You're that much more savvy now.

Was gonna say this. Every time I get a message or e-mail about a site I use informing me of something I open a new window and log in from my end to see what's going on. Most often it's a scam, and I can just report the spam and move on.

[lavenderbee]

It is so easy to get taken in t same stage or other. Glad you got all your money back Wendy. I do not bank on line & as when we first moved up here a lady in the small village where we lived had her bank account details stolen. That someone took out a £5,000. loan. The lady was about to retire but had to work another 2 years to repay the loan even though she never had the money. As it was on her account details, the Bank would not return the money. That was 15 years ago so hopefully there are better rules in place now against fraud.

[rcperryls]

I am so suspicious of fraudulent emails that I have probably "spammed" a few that might have been legitimate. I rarely click on links in emails especially ones which are from a bank or credit card company. As the others have said, its best to log in to that site as you normally do to determine if it is real or not. Whenever possible I forward an email like that to the company's fraud/spam/abuse email department. They will often reply back to thank you. It gets trickier all the time because the spammers are getting better and better at looking like the genuine thing.
It can happen to anyone if you relax a little so it pays to be vigilant.

Carole

[Arianwen]

Like the others have said it is all too easy to get taken in by these people and I'm sure they are getting sneakier.

When I get these emails now I hover my mouse over the link - the real address it takes you to comes up either just above my mouse, or towards the bottom of my browser and if it doesnt match what I expect I dont go there. I also open up a new browser and go to the website in the usual way.

I'm sorry you got taken in but I'm glad nothing was taken from your accounts and you have gotten it sorted fairly easily

[Gypsy57]

I once sold on old netbook on gumtree.com. A guy in Nigeria answered and was asking a lot of questions about it. It seemed really genuine and I was pleased to get rid of it and he was happy to pay the postage fees etc.
So, he sent the payment via paypal. The e-mail was really genuine looking. I should have gone directly to my paypal account but I was in a hurry to get to the post office before it closed. Then I got a second e-mail from paypal with another larger payment and the guy said he had made a mistake and paypal wouldn't cancel it, and could I just send the money back via western union or something. Writing about it now I feel just as stupid as I did back then. I actually went to send the payment but the woman blocked it at the other end as she must have realised what had happened (the English post office didn't even figure it out).
At the time I was just more annoyed at the guy for making a silly error and not contacting paypal. Afterwards I felt like the biggest fool ever. I was so ashamed of myself! I was more annoyed at myself for falling for such a stupid thing as I am always so careful about such things.
These people are professionals. The paypal email looked so real. I even compared it later with a real paypal email and they were pretty much identical. Now I NEVER post stuff on those kinds of websites and I NEVER answer any kind of "official"looking email unless I have initiated it first, no matter what.