How To Identify Authentic Emails

The five things wrong with the email from yesterday's post are as follows.

1) The email was addressed to:    To: undisclosed-recipients:;

2) The email said, "Dear PayPal Customer,"

3) No Logo

4) They asked me to click on a link which was not www.paypal.com

5) There was no small print at the bottom of the email telling me to not respond to this automated email and that if I required further help I should go login to my account at their website. 

 

You should take a look at an actual email that PayPal really has sent you after you make a purchase and paid for a product using PayPal. You will notice that this message includes the five differences noted above that the email message as compared to the one my Mom received. 

First of all, PayPal has all of my information. They know who I am when they send me mail, even when they send out mass emails they always say, "Dear Patrick Jolley."

Secondly, the wording of the email was to induce fear among the recipients.  It was not nice, nor businesslike. 

Thirdly, the recipients.  Again, PayPal knows who I am.  They send emails to me, not to undisclosed recipients. 

Fourthly, If PayPal wants me to update personal information or billing or shipping information they will ask that I log in securely on their site and do so in the normal manner.  They will not supply a link. They will merely remind me that I can go to their website by TYPING in or COPYING in www.paypal.com.  Why typing or copying only?  Because if a link is supplied, it may say one thing but go to another place entirely. It is called the link for a reason.  Think of webpages, when it says click on News, or Careers, or Movies, or Click Here, behind all that underlined text is a web address that is not www.news.com but rather more likely to be http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032525/ if you were searching on MSNBC.com. 

Oh, and I kindly replaced the direction of the supplied link in yesterday's email to a nice article you can read from CSU to learn more about phishing.

Fifthly, and lastly, did you ever notice that Amazon, Ebay, PayPal, and your bank and whomever else contacts you almost always have the same thing on the bottom of their emails?  It is always smaller print that says, "Please do not respond to this email as it is not monitored and automatically generated or something or other."  Simply put a program automatically generates the email to let you know that your purchase was accepted and is being shipped and is being processed, etc.  You cannot talk to anyone real on the other end. If you need help or assistance you are required to log in securely on their website and go to the help menu from there. 

 

Please look at the email below and compare and contrast it to the one I sent you earlier.  This way you can spot "phishing" emails easier and be a little safer on the web. 

Also, one last thing, if you are not sure. Do not do anything.  If it is fake, it will either go away, or come back with the exact same wording or something.  Besides a closed account is better than one open to a stranger. 

Email Phishing Scams

Is This Email Real?

Just a few days ago my mother received the following email and asked me if it was real.  See if you can identify the five key points I found in identifying this email as fraud. 

Need some help.  See tomorrow's post for a real email I received and the answers to those five key points mentioned earlier.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "PayPal" <confirm@paypal.com>
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
Date: Tue, 02 Mar 2010 03:33:29 -0700
Subject: Online Banking and Bill Payment Deactivation Notice !
Dear PayPal Customer,

This is your final warning about the safety of your PayPal account.
If you do not update your billing informations your access on PayPal
features will be restricted and the user deleted. This might be due
to either following reasons:

- A recent change in your personal information (i.e. change of address)
- Submiting invalid information during the initial sign up process.
- An inability to accurately verify your selected option of payment due
 an internal error within our processors.

Please update your PayPal profile in order to restore your online
access, click the link:

http://61.19.213.82/information_center/article/. /web/Online-Service/. /Account/PayPal/webscr.php?cmd=_login-run

If your account information is not updated, your ability to use your
PayPal account will become restricted.




Thank you,
PayPal Customer Service

Get Help When Trying to Help

I wanted to write a post like this after the recent earthquakes that have devastated the world and inspiring some of us to donate funds to help.  However, I am going to let Luke Erickson from the Idaho Two Cents Newsletter provide today's article.

This is a guest post from the UI Extension by Luke Erickson

Even in this time of economic recession many have donated their time, skills and hard earned cash in the name of Haiti relief. Unfortunately, something else less reputable surfaced in the midst of these somewhat recent events, Haiti relief scams.

History has shown that any time a lot of money changes hands, scammers will crawl out of the woodwork to try to get their sticky fingers on some of it. Whether it’s in the form of individual door to door solicitors, bogus websites, crooks posing as representatives of legitimate charity organizations, or even legitimate charity organizations that have lost their way, scams are all too prevalent.

When considering charity, my advice is not to withhold your donations out of fear or confusion, but to do everything you can to make sure your donated dollars go to the purpose you intend. A great way to check up on a charitable organization is to go to a third party website that rates a charity according to their legitimacy and efficiency at using donated dollars for their intended causes. The most widely known and used include charity watch.org, charitynavigator.org, and give.org.

Each of these websites uses a different methodology for rating a charitable organization, so it’s not a bad idea to use more than one website to help you get an accurate picture of a charity that could potentially receive some of your donated dollars.

“But why go to all the trouble?” you may be asking yourself. Consider the example of a recent report by charitynavigator.org on a large national charity called Feed the Children. According to their report Feed the Children is America’s 7th largest charity based on its private support of close to $1 billion annually. The report states that Feed the Children spends approximately 64% of its cash budget on fundraising, 14% goes toward other miscellaneous costs, and a mere 22% is actually used on program services. Think that’s bad? It gets worse. 83% of non-cash, donated items were categorized as medical supplies, another 7% as books and the remaining 10% as assorted necessities. So, according to the report, Feed the Children does very little to actually feed the children.

A quick visit to their website splashes your computer screen with pictures of sad, dirty Haitian children in need of help. Too bad that only a miniscule percentage of your donation through this “charity” will actually reach those Haitian children. The rest apparently goes to perpetuate a misguided and unorganized billion dollar organization.

Also consider that according to an FBI report, it took less than 24 hours for the first fraudulent emails solicitations sent in the name of Haiti relief, to be identified. Also, according to an ABC news report, 64 new Haiti relief websites appeared within 36 hours of the quake. When donating to emergency relief efforts it’s usually best to go with a long established organization with a proven track record of efficient use of donated dollars. Those charities that pop up immediately after catastrophes should be treated with skepticism.

Also be aware of identity theft as a major problem surrounding charitable donations. Particularly when answering telephone, email or door - to- door solicitations for donations to a charitable cause your number one question should not be, “How will this person or organization use my donated money?” but rather,“Can I trust this person or organization with my information?” Whether it’s your social security number, credit card number, other banking info, or even your name, address and phone number, your first priority is making sure the person on the other end is legitimate and trustworthy.

Sadly, we will never know how much money was donated in the name of Haiti Relief that never actually reached the people of Haiti. The good news is that there are still many legitimate organizations with a proven track record of delivering help in times of crises. Do your best now and in the future to seek these organizations out so that your good intentions are followed by good results.

Internet Scams

Buying and selling a home can be a stressful event. Whether you decide to do it yourself or if you team up with a real estate broker. One way to do it yourself is to use Zillow.com. It is similar to the MLS but open and almost free. You can browse listed homes for free, you can even post your home and a "Make me move" price for free. Just this last week though, they started charging to actually list your home as "For Sale."

I used to have a listing on Zillow and was surprised by the number of Realtors that called me up wanting to list on the MLS with them. I had more activity from Realtors trying to get my business than I did of potential home buyers. However, I did have one interested buyer that I thought was just too good to pass up. I will post our email conversation below. The first message was sent through Zillow to me.

From Zillow:

RAPHAEL TUFOUR (raphael_tufour@yahoo..com) is contacting you about your home. Here is the message:
------
HELLO I AM INTERESTED IN BUYING THIS PROPERTY OUTRIGHTLY. COULD YOU PLEASE EMAIL ME TO CONFIRM IF IT IS STILL AVAILABLE IN THE MARKET FOR SALE. REGARDS, RAPHAEL TUFOUR
------
Please be aware that once you respond to RAPHAEL TUFOUR (raphael_tufour@yahoo.com), your e-mail address will no longer be anonymous to them.

Thanks for using Zillow.

Usually, I would have just junked this email right off. The indicators - all caps, misspellings, 'outrightly'.
But just for fun, I decided to use a secondary email account and respond.

Raphael,
This home is still available. What is your offer?

The next day he responded.

Sir,

I don`t believe in offer and counter offer. Just let me know the net/bottom price and if it is ok by me we proceed. 

Thanks

Raphael Tufour

I replied with the following in kind and mimicking his salutation.

Sir,
Compiling data from many sources I was able to come up with an asking price of $250,000.
Let me know what you think.
Thanks.

Of course the funny part was this was way more than what I had listed as my asking price. He must have liked the price, or that I was communicating because he went back on his word and countered my offer for a price that was still higher than my listed asking price, and he also went back to all caps again.

WHAT ABOUT $220,00 SIR?

Confused, I wrote back.

I thought that you said that you "do not believe in offer and counter offer."
What is wrong with $250,000? Are you trying to cheat me?

Now he was confused.

Cheat you in what way sir? How do we proceed?? What is the requirements???

Thanks,

Raphael

What 'are' the requirements. Well, I only require you to be honest in your dealings. Let's see if he can do that.

Well, if you would like to proceed with the purchase price of $250,000 then I will contact my realtor and we can begin work on getting all the paperwork in order that is necessary to complete the sale.

 He must have thought that that was okay.

I would like us to proceed.

Raphael

Turn about's fair play. Let's see what he thinks of me requesting information from him.

To begin, I will need some basic information to prepare the forms.

What is your contact information?
Where do you live?
What is your primary purpose for making this purchase?
What will be your form of payment?

We may also request a current pre-approval letter from a reputable lender.
We may also request a copy of your credit report.

Thanks.

He responded quickly - but not with information. Rather with excuses.

Thanks for your email.
I will provide the requested information necessary to prepare the forms, but please let it be noted that i am a civil servant/government official whose account is highly monitored and regulated in line with civil service bureau for code of conduct for public servants.

In line with the above and as soon as we get things fixed,my handler may be coming with the funds cash in consignment for the invesment matters as the funds may not need to go through the usual banking system until the funds arrives at your end.

Let me know what you think about this.

Thanks
Raphael Tufour

And the truth comes out. He cannot deal honestly with others. I shot back a short reply.

I will tell you what I think about this. You failed to respond to my questions.

I never received another email in reply. It was kind of funny for a while. But sobering to think about how many people still get ripped off from shady internet scammers offering a deal that is too good to be true.
Do you have a story about Internet Scams or phishing emails?  Comment below and let us know.