I got an email titled "Thank You for your iTunes Purchase".

Uh...I have NEVER purchased i-Anything and I damn sure don't buy music. Opened the email and it's all official looking with order numbers and account numbers and such-like and the title of some tune I've never heard of by a group I've never heard of.

So, I'm thinking "My VISA got hacked and some peckerhead is buying tunes for his iPod/Phone/Implant." Almost bit, then looked at the return address and it's "noreply@lks;djf;lsjkhfl;weirupoqi3uewer;iuej.com" Ah. Phishing expedition and/or Virus Central.

Plus I checked my VISA online and no past or pending purchases I can't account for.

I check my VISA 2-3 times a week routinely, I might step that up for a bit to be sure but I'm thinking they mostly wanted me to click on a link.

Well, Scooter, as it turns out, I was born at night, but it wasn't LAST night...

Lately I've gotten a few emails from USAA telling me there's a problem with my membership and it's essential to login to correct it. Conveniently there's a login link for me to click on.

Sure looked legit. Great counterfeit job. Slick,I'll hand them that much. Not being a USAA member I passed, but called them to alert about the scam.

After being passed to several people I finally got their IT unit. She asked that I forward it and gave me the email address.

I did so and it was returned as undeliverable.

Maybe it's an inside job? I was tempted to call her back but she didn't sound too bright so I trashed it.

Ah this is nothing, i have been getting messages to "update" my email account, the reply to email always blow the whole thing off. these spammers/hackers are really good because the package looks really legit.

I've been getting these emails and not opening them for 20 years. I must be on every spam list ever compiled. Nowadays all those emails go directly into my junk folder with no intervention from me. Best part of using gmail and hotmail, I never see the spam unless I look in that folder.

I once got a phishing email from Citibank. It looked good, but I don't do business with Citibank, so I was suspicious. My next door neighbor at the time was a NYPD Detective on the Joint Terrorist Task Force. I asked him if he knew anyone who might be interested in tracking it down. I forwarded it to him, who forwarded it to someone at the Secret Service. They tried to trace it, but lost it somewhere in Eastern Europe.

Any emails such as these, I hover he pointer over the email to check out the address.

I see those regularly from Fedex, USAA, various banks, and more. They're so common my employer started a program of sending special phishing e-mails to employees. If anyone clicks on the wrong thing it alerts them they just fell for a phishing scam test.

I got a similar one from Paypal saying my password had been changed. The email came from an address similar to what the OP mentioned. It also had a link that claimed to be to paypal's web site. When I hovered over the link it was to a completely different site than paypal. I think it's the season for scams.

Some guy wants to gift me a penny on paypal. He tries over and over and I keep rejecting it.

Any ideas why this is occurring?

Got one last month from "Bank of America". It looked very official, correct logos and everything. It wanted to reconfirm my information. Called BOA, who knew nothing about it.

quote:

Originally posted by radioman:
Some guy wants to gift me a penny on paypal. He tries over and over and I keep rejecting it.

Any ideas why this is occurring?

Trying to verify the account is valid before spending any resources hacking it?

Some places tap the card once for .10 to verify it's legit before authorizing the purchase so maybe the crooks do it too?

Yup, I am seeing these a lot also. Got one the other day from "Amazon" thanking me for my purchase and wanting me to click on a link to track it. The email address was definitely NOT Amazon. Similar thing from PayPal.

Watch yerself out there.

I see these phishing email all the time.
I am surprised that more don't fall for it because they look real.
If you happen to: (anything) ...waiting for a fed ex package, have an Apple account ...etc > then one might be more inclined to the "click of death".
The ones with links are more sophisticated and look mo-real but the ones with attachments are a dead give away.
So the ones when you have absolutely no association with should be pretty easy to know.
However, a fool is born everyday.
When in doubt (any) then delete~!