that was the email. i was interested in a puppy they were selling so yea..
can you please tell me why its a scam??
kk thx everyone

Hello seller my name is (MRS)Marie Nelson.The reason I sent you this email is to inform you that i saw your pet and i intrested in it,payment will be make by certified Money Order or cashier check. In view of this I need your (1)Full Name (2)Full address (3)Contact phone# (4)accept of my offer to send the Money Order,you don’t have to be worry about the shipping my shipping company will handle it.i will be sending Enough money on the Money Order and after you deduct all the money you need the remaining money will be send back to my shipping company that will come for the pick up of the pet… get back to me As soon as possible to send you the Money Order!

Recently, some fraudsters have sent a new scam email. They claim that you can win a big prize and asking you to give your personal information and follow their instructions to get the prize. Once you contact these “organizers,” they tell you that you have to pay a fee in order to transfer the money.

Another tactic is to ask you for your bank information so they can deposit the money in your account. You get deeper and deeper into the scam as the money supposedly gets closer and closer to your bank account. However, they always claim they can’t continue unless they get more money or more private information from you.

“Obviously, you should ignore any message like this. If you’ve been defrauded and have sent personal information or money to these scammers, you should assume that your private information has been stolen by criminals.” Sophia (www.epathchina.com) said.

“Here are two examples of the scam emails”, Sophia gave two emails in all to explain the scam emails in detailed. She said that these two scam emails were recently received by Wholesale Company ePathChina (www.epathchina.com), and the aim of publishing the emails by ePathChina is to remind everybody to be more careful of scammers.

The first scam email is like this:

The National Lottery Board

(Customer Services)

Ticket Number: 56475600545188.

Email:xxxxx@yahoo.com.hk

 Dear Recipient,You were selected among lucky recipients to receive the award sum of £540,000 (Five hundred and forty thousand Pounds sterling) in the UK ONLINE DRAWS held on Sat 20th of June,2009. Please contact the Fiduciary Agent John Williams for Claims

E-mail Address:- xxxx@yahoo.com.hk       ENTER PERSONAL DETAILS (Compulsory)

First Name: Last Name:                             Sex/Age:

Occupation:Annual Income:                        Address Line:

City: State:                                                Zip/Postal Code:

Country:                                                     Valid Phone Number:

Fax (optional):                                            Email:

On behalf of the Board kindly accept our warmest congratulations.

Yours faithfully,

Pedretti Roberto

(Information Officer)

 

And the second scam one is as follow:

UBS AG

Postfach 8098Z?ich

Switzerland

Swiss Clearing Number: 230

Postal Account: 80-2-2

SWIFT: UBSW CH ZH 80A        

Web site: www.xxx.com

I am an investment consultant working with Bank UBS AG Zurich at their offshore department Zurich Switzerland . I will be happy to work this deal out with you if you have a corporate or personal Bank Account and if you are capable to keep TOP SECRET. I need strong Assurance that you will never let me down, if I transfer this money to your account.During one of our periodic auditing I discovered a dormant accounts with holding balance of US$ 232,000.000.00 {Two hundred and Thirty Two million US Dollars only}Sometimes a person will open a bank account, deposit money, and then disappear into the tin air. Banks are not always able to find out what has become of these silent customers, or to know whether they should follow up on requests from people who claim to be heirs to the accounts. The main problem is that the customer resides abroad and, due to bank secrecy, the bank cannot publish notices in the international press to locate the depositaries. This has led the majority of Swiss banks to refrain from opening small-deposit accounts for foreign customers; for fear that they will forget that the account exists.It has happened in the past, however, that customers pass away and their heirs can neither prove the death, nor their heir ship. This was a frequent occurrence during the wartime periods, and the banks have now set up a simple, rapid resolution procedure operating to their customers’ advantage.Dormant assets are defined as any assets deposited with a bank (i.e. an account, a custody account or a safety-deposit box) for which there has been no contact with the customer in the bank’s files for the last ten years or more.If you believe you have claim to a Swiss bank account for which the holder (e.g. an ancestor) has not been in contact with the bank for over ten years, there is a fairly simple procedure to follow, depending on the date the account was opened  this account has not been operated for the past years. As at this moment, I am constrained to issue more details about this business until your response is received.If you are not familiar with Swiss Dormant Accounts and profile, please take a moment of your very busy schedules to read about Swiss dormant accounts: Website; www.xxxx.phtm

If you know that you are capable to handle large or small amount on trust and can keep secret and ready to take 40% of any amount I transfer to your account from the dormant account and I will take 60%, send the following information by return mail:{xxxxx@yahoo.co.jp}

 

Bank name…                                                            Bank address………………

Account no…………………                                        Swift code………………..

Account name……………..                                        Beneficiary address………..

Your phone no…………….                                         Your Occupation…

Age…………………….

 

Tell me more about yourself, while I look forward to receive the above information. I want to re-assure you that this business is risk free and you can send an empty account to receive the funds, provided that the account is capable to receive incoming funds.Thank you for your time and attention.

Warmest regards

Mr.Antony Masudu.

Contact me urgently via email privately for further details: {xxxx@yahoo.co.jp}

“If anyone who have received emails like this he must be careful”, Sophia emphasized, and she listed the correct solution thereof.

Do not provide sensitive information in an email, such as

Your social security number or tax identification number

Your bank account information and credit card number, PIN or security code

Information to identify you such as your mother’s maiden name, birth city or pet’s name

Moreover, forms requesting information within an email are typically a clear indication of fraud.

Do not click on links in a fraud email

Always remember that website address links can be forged. Do not click on any links listed in an email that you suspect to be fraudulent. We suggest typing the address from the link into the address bar at the top of your browser and pressing “Enter.” This way, you can ensure you’ll be directed to your intended Website destination and spammers can’t validate your email address.

Do not “Unsubscribe” from a fraud email

Do not “Unsubscribe” or “Reply” to be removed from any suspected fraud email. Many spammers claim to offer an “Unsubscribe” function used to actually confirm that your email address is valid and working in order to continue to spam you in the future.

What do I do if I receive a fraud email?

When it comes to email, you are in control. You can protect yourself by not providing any personal or sensitive information in a suspicious email. If you think you have received a fraud email or if you are unsure if an email is legitimate, you can check your account status.

Anyway, if you get an email or pop-up message that asks for personal or financial information, do not reply. And don’t click on the link in the message, either. Legitimate companies don’t ask for this information via email. If you are concerned about your account, contact the organization mentioned in the email using a telephone number you know to be genuine, or open a new Internet browser session and type in the company’s correct Web address yourself. In any case, don’t cut and paste the link from the message into your Internet browser; phishers often make links look like they go to one site, but actually send you somewhere else.

 

 

Q: I recently received an email that supposedly came from eBay that said someone had attempted to log into my eBay business account without authorization (whatever that means). The email instructed me to click a link to re-enter and confirm my account information to make sure that my account had not been hacked. Being naturally paranoid I contacted eBay directly and found that my account had not been hacked and that this email was actually from someone trying to steal my eBay account information. Is there nothing that can be done about this kind of thing?
– Wesley C.

A: The only thing you can do, Wesley, is be thankful that your paranoia kicked in because you were about to fall victim to just one of the latest attempts by thieves to steal your personal and credit card information.

As you discovered, the email you received was not from eBay, but from someone using a forged email address that gave the impression that the email was really from eBay. If you had clicked the link to “re-enter and confirm” your personal and credit card information, you would have been taken to a website that probably looked a lot like eBay, but was really a fake site created for the sole purpose of stealing your information. You would have been instructed to enter your eBay account information and other personal information, including your social security number, checking and savings account information, driver’s license number, and credit card number. In the end you would have supplied the thieves with everything they need to steal your identity.

The eBay scam is just the latest in a long line of sophisticated attempts to steal personal information through online means. Customers of PayPal, Amazon, Dell Computer, eTrade, Bank One, and many other online merchants have been the target of such scams in recent years.

The shear number of eBay customers is the main reason that eBay has become the most popular target of scam artists trying to steal personal information from individuals and businesses alike.

As we talked about way back in 2003, thanks to the Internet, stealing someone’s identity has never been easier. At any given moment, there are thousands of Internet thieves using all manner of high tech wizardry in an attempt to steal personal and business information from unsuspecting souls, and many times they can gain access to this information simply by asking the person to provide it through fraudulent means, like a fake email.

While most people are familiar with identity theft, most business men and women never think about it happening to them, at least on a professional level. Consider this: if a criminal can learn your business checking account number or the number of your company credit card, they can steal far more from your business than if they had simply knocked down the door and carted off your desk.

Here are a few ways to protect you from business and personal identity theft.

· Never give out your first name, last name, business name, email address, account passwords, credit card numbers, bank account information, PIN number, social security number, or driver’s license number.

· Change your online account passwords every 30 days. Believe it or not, a hacker who steals your personal information can often guess your online account passwords in about two minutes. If your Charles Schwab online account password is your birthday or the name of your first born or family pet, count on a hacker cracking that code faster than you can say “Open Sesame.”

· Never provide personal information in response to an email or telephone call. Just because someone calls and says they are from Dunn & Bradstreet and need to confirm your business information does not mean they are really from Dunn & Bradstreet.

· Never give your business credit card number over the phone to place an order with someone who has called you unsolicited. If you are interested in what they are selling get their number, check out their company, then call them back to place the order.

If you think that you have become the victim of identity theft or think someone is trying to steal your identity or personal information you should report them immediately to the Federal Trade Commission. You will find more information on their website at http://www.consumer.gov/idtheft/.

For more information on what to do if identity theft happens to you visit http://www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs17a.htm.

You should also remember that no reputable online company will ever ask you to log in and completely re-enter your account information. Think about it. They already have this information. Why would they ask you to provide it again? The answer is: they wouldn’t.

Be careful out there.

Here’s to your success.

Tim Knox