Ever almost been tripped up by a clever scam?

[Sean Whitmore]

Lots of people have probably received those scam emails from someone claiming to be eBay or some other online store, saying they've lost your credit card information and would you please write it all down and email it to them? Rather shamefully obvious, and I'm almost left feeling that anyone who falls for it deserves to.

But this one almost got me today; it shut me right up. I received an email, suposedly from Paypal, confirming my payment for some $300 pink cell phone from someone I've never heard of. As someone who's been through identity theft before (I assume by now many people have), I immediately saw red and was ready to tear somebody a new hole.

I immediately clicked on the "dispute purchase" link without thinking (because if I HAD been thinking, I would have questioned why they were offering me the chance to dispute a purchase they had already confirmed). And after a couple of pages of security bullshit, what is it that "Paypal" tells me to do? Send them all my credit card information so they can prove it wasn't me.

My hand was literally reaching for the mouse when I thought: "Holy shit, did I overdose on stupid pills this morning or what?!" Either these email conmen are more clever than I've ever given them credit for, or I'm considerably less clever than I thought I was.

Anyone else allllllmost get suckered in by a scam that, in retrospect, looked completely obvious?


SEAN

[Chiasm]

I got scammed once at the altar and later learned that she was not the person I thought she was. Does that count?


Seriously though, I'm not sure I've ever read a scam email like you describe. Could be because I use multiple email accounts. One account, the one I actually check, is only for emailing friends and relatives. The other is a junk account for signing onto message boards and other internet activities. I rarely check it and it gets like 100 emails a day now. I'm sure I've gotten the scam emails somewhere in there but they are lost admist all the other spam.

[west3man]

I dunno about obvious, but they ARE getting more creative, these days.

An example... (http://forums.comicbookresources.com/showthread.php?t=114281&highlight=scam)

[Sean Whitmore]

I got scammed once at the altar and later learned that she was not the person I thought she was. Does that count?


It would have, if you'd gotten away in time. ;)


Seriously though, I'm not sure I've ever read a scam email like you describe. Could be because I use multiple email accounts. One account, the one I actually check, is only for emailing friends and relatives. The other is a junk account for signing onto message boards and other internet activities. I rarely check it and it gets like 100 emails a day now. I'm sure I've gotten the scam emails somewhere in there but they are lost admist all the other spam.


That's another thing that made it seem authentic: my junk mail filter is set at exclusive. Any mail from anyone I didn't specifically clear should go straight to my junk box. But this got right through to my Inbox.


I dunno about obvious, but they ARE getting more creative, these days.

An example...


Yipes! That's a good one, and pretty innocuous looking at first glance. You gotta imagine how successful that con might be when it's accidentally sent to someone who IS in the middle of an auction.


SEAN

[JolietJake]

My little sister is the smartest person I, or most people, know ... and she got hooked by one of those email scams.

That's insidious thing about phishing ... if you're not paying attention ... it can get you.

[Noah Johnson]

We got a couple steps in to a craigslist check fraud scam before noticing that WAY too many red flags were going up.

We still have a check up on our fridge for $6,500, drawn on a crooked Vietnamese bank.