posted
About a month ago I got an e-mail from e-bay indicating that my account was being investigated for fraud and I needed to follow certain links to ensure that my account wouldn't be suspended. I was traveling in Europe at the moment and paying a pretty penny for internet time so I let it go thinking that if worst comes to worst, I'll just sign up again later. If I hadn't been traveling I probably would have taken the time to click on the links. I didn't think about it again until about ten minutes ago.
Today I found this quiz to test our ability to distinguish between on-line fraud e-mails and legitimate ones.
I never thought to examine e-mails such as these, many appear genuine. but I guess I need to take more time to do so
Thought y'all might find it interesting to take. (it seems that the earthlink link is broken, but the rest of the quiz is interesting)
posted
I got an error for #6... but I still got it right. 90%- but only because I thought to examine these e-mails.
Posts: 862 | Registered: Oct 2003
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posted
Eduardo -- my name is Porter. The Portugese word for porter is porteiro (I spent 2 years in Parana as an LDS missionary). Porteiro sounds like potatoe to most americans, and Mr. Potatoe Head is a childhood toy.
Posts: 16551 | Registered: Feb 2003
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posted
Porteiro: That's true! I did read that you went to Parana for two years! Hehe...I never went to Parana (darn big country). Did you like it?
Posts: 1785 | Registered: Oct 2003
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I missed number 1 because the general rule is to never follow a link attached to such an e-mail if that link is going to prompt for personal information. I guess if you did want to find out about extra Hotmail options you could follow the link, but when it came time to give a credit card number or password, you would back out and come in through the front door.
When signing up for eBay or PayPal you are warned that they will never send any e-mail asking you to update or provide personal information. If you were smart enough to figure out how to sign up using their front door in the first place, you don't need an e-mail link.
Posts: 2655 | Registered: Feb 2004
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posted
I really did like it. I really want to make it back to Brasil as a tourist some day. I really liked Curitiba, and it was awesome to see the Iguacu falls.
Posts: 16551 | Registered: Feb 2003
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posted
I just got one about a settlement from a class action suit against PayPal entitling me to some money. Was that one a scam? It had some really great legalese in it. I was believing it, in fact, but decided whatever paperwork they wanted me to do wouldn't be worth the $0.27, or whatever, that I was entitled to as my part of the settlement. Now I'm thinking it was probably a scam.
How did scammers get hold of the fact that I was a PayPal customer?
Posts: 2843 | Registered: A Long Time Ago!
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posted
To ak: PayPal has thousands of customers. Spammers send their messages to many people, so at least some of them will be PayPal customers.
Posts: 1785 | Registered: Oct 2003
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posted
10/10. I basically checked whether they were asking for any information, and if they did, if they told you to log on separately or had a link. Except for the hotmail one, which I knew already was real. Posts: 1466 | Registered: Jan 2003
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posted
I frequently use the links in potential fraud emails to verify their authenticity (If the link actually goes to the real institution's website, I'd say those are real--excepting any trickery with displaying a false page address. It's not too difficult to figure those out). Because this quiz made all the links broken, it was impossible to test it this way.
Anyway, that's my excuse for missing the Citibank one.
posted
Some of them I just used common sense (or tried to) instead of actually reading the email, like the one about banks I figured I'd call them to confirm as opposed to doing it over e-mail.
Posts: 853 | Registered: Feb 2004
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posted
paypal did settle a class action suit...however the e-mail you got still might have been a fraud. Sometimes people take real events and make scams out of them
Posts: 1901 | Registered: May 2004
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posted
This test is bad. Scammers have improved their previously poor grammar and spelling (as about half of the frauds here indicate), and are stepping up with more legitimate-looking claims that may pass most people's skepticism. Common sense may be good enough now, but don't get lulled into relying on it. Things like PGP have been around for decades...
Posts: 1839 | Registered: May 1999
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posted
Got all of them correct. But, what is really scary is that I have received the fraud ones many times. They are getting better (and learning how to spell and type). I agree. What I do is simply forward them to the appropriate fraud department of the company involved. I do this even if I just suspect shadiness. I am very paranoid. At least, that's what the people following me are always saying.
Posts: 822 | Registered: Jul 2001
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posted
I got a 90%, but I think that if I'd been able to actually click on the links to see where they go, I'd have gotten that one right, as well (I missed the CitiBank one).
That was interesting.
Posts: 3214 | Registered: Apr 2002
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im screwed
