#email phishing

[redbuddi]

SCAM ALERT!!!

This morning I woke up to this email

Scary right? It looks as though all of a sudden I owe over a thousand dollars to some studio I've never heard of. This would be enough to make anyone jump to correct the situation. But if you get this email or ones like it, stay calm, do not call the number, and do not click ANY of the links.

This email is fake. I logged into paypal through normal means and there was no such invoice sent to me. While obviously I didn't call the number or click the links to check for sure, this is most likely a classic phishing scheme. Essentially if you click any of the links or call the number, you will be asked for your login information in a way that looks legitimate, but once they confirm your login they will disconnect you, change your password, and have complete access to your paypal.

tl;dr, If you get the email pictured above or anything similar, delete it immediately. Do NOT call the number it provides. Do NOT click on any of the links it contains.

[front-facing-pokemon]

[nixcraft]

[the-last-dillpickle]

Unpopular opinion (maybe?) but I think people make Garak OP when it comes to his tech and hacking skills

[sweaterkittensahoy]

In hilarious IT news today:

We have to do the annual phishing training at work. IT sent out an email notifying everyone that the training would be coming from a third party and gave us the name of the company.

The company's email looked so sketch that several people reported it to IT for a possible phishing attempt. Personally, I think everyone who reported does not need to go through the training again.

[fooltofancy]

semi-regular reminder that if you receive a message asking for help for someone's sick animal, please look back through that person's blog to make sure it's not a scam before passing it around.

[coolbeesbro]

So I set up my new stuff on Etsy hoping I'll have better luck there and biting the bullet on listing fees, and already I've had 2 scammers in my inbox that start off making it sound like I just got a sale.

This is just 1 since I didn't think to screenshot the other before I marked it as spam, but that's just downright cruel. Taking advantage of someone who you can see hasn't made any sales, especially right now, takes a special kind of evil.

Although this goes without saying, just in case this is a PSA to others that sell on Etsy, do not follow any link or type any URL's that they ask you to.

Taking this opportunity to point this out (I didn't pick up on these parts before until I saw a video on TokTok) notice how they ask me to type in COM and not .com? It's usually small things like this that trick people into trusting it, because it look similar enough to be legitimate that some people (myself included at one time) won't think twice about it. Likely, this link would lead to somebody hacking into your device or account to steal information such as credit card and banking info that you might have attached or saved. The scary thing is, you may not even know you have one right away.

This also applies to other phishing scams, mainly pertaining to PayPal (I've gotten these emails many times). They (the hacker and not PayPal) send you a message that looks just plausible enough to trick somebody into thinking you just made a purchase, won't give any form of specification, and will have an attached PDF "receipt" that they ask you to click on. This usually tricks people into doing so because you think, "Hey, I didn't make any purchases with PayPal, what was ordered?" you click on it then BAM they can get into your system. I unfortunately did this myself once and my phone slowly stopped working over the course of a year, I started getting a lot of texts trying to get me to follow suspicious links, calls from the "FBI" and "IRS", and I had to change the passwords to all my accounts because the person even tried hacking into my actual PayPal account. My phone would get absurdly hot, and the full battery would last 4 hours at best.

Never click on a PDF document from any sketchy emails, because a virus can and will infect your device (computers and phones) by hiding malicious code in it. These forms of attack are usually in the form of spyware to track what you do on that device and collect your private information so the hacker can commit fraud or identity theft. It could also download ransomware and lock you out of your device unless you pay them, and also threaten to leak private information (some of which being outing someone LGBT+, leaking nudes, and doxing) to scare you into giving them what they want.

There's a way you can always tell if it's a scammer, and that's by checking the actual email. PayPal emails are always going to be one of these two: service@paypal.com or member@paypal.com. If you cant remember making a payment and get an email from one of these, it can still be a scammer that can change 1 or 2 letters subtly. For example: Service@paypal.com, member@PayPal.com. If you have any suspicions, just go straight to your PayPal account and check for any bills/receipts there. If you don't seen anything, it's best to report those emails to PayPal directly so they can either verify it as one of theirs (it won't be if it differs at all from the two I showed) and work towards flagging and taking it down for others later down the line who may be tricked.

Anyways, this has just been a PSA since something good can come from the asshole who sent me this message. Hope this can help at least 1 person.

[mercurialsmile]

Can’t believe if I have to say it but… if someone you don’t know and have never interacted with sends you a link to a website you CANNOT verify as safe do NOT click the link.

People can spoof websites to make them look like popular and trusted sites. Then they can steal your data. And sell it.

Y’all need to learn basic internet safety I’m sorry.

Think of it like this… if someone you don’t know out of nowhere emails or texts you a link to donate money to them, no matter what story they attach, would you click on it? Or would you report it as junk mail or as a phishing email/text?

I WOULD HOPE THE LATTER!

It’s the same online on a public platform.

Do NOT click links from people you DO NOT KNOW. It doesn’t matter if someone else vetted them supposedly or not. You don’t know that person either! The only person you can trust to keep you safe online is yourself!

Do not respond to possible phishing messages. Do not click on suspicious links to other websites. If you would mark it as spam or junk if it was a text message or email, treat it the same way on tumblr

[atomiccryptid]

tmagp / fnaf crossover where instead of jonah, the third text to speech voice in that windows nt 4.0 computer is william afton

[disdaidal]

Btw I got a call from Paypal this morning, which sounded a helluva lot like an automated message (a female voice spoke in English, but it sounded distant, almost robot-like). And this voice said something similar to "we have received a request to withdraw money/funds from your Paypal account" (the requested amount was around a hundred-something) and "if you want to cancel it, press 1".

I hung up immediately. The phone number on my screen showed (+359) and "Bulgaria". I'm Finnish.

After ending the call, I immediately googled the message that I had heard on the phone, and it seems like a lot of Paypal users have gotten similar emails from 'Paypal' (I'm no stranger to such scam emails myself), but none of them mentioned a phone call. So I searched for that number and couldn't find it—or at least nothing that suggests that it's 'potentially harmful'.

I thought about reporting it to PayPal (still might), but somehow I doubt that'll do anything. I also checked my Paypal account activity in case of any new suspicious activity and transferred my money to another bank account (not linked with PPL) just in case.

I'm sure it was just a phishing attempt and nothing serious happened because I didn't respond, but you really can't be too careful these days.

Anyway, if you use Paypal and get emails or phone calls like this, don't answer them. Don't give them any information. Just hang up and delete those emails and/or mark them as spam. If you're not sure if they're legit, go to the Paypal official website and contact their support. They should know.

[msburgundy]

[yeahiwasintheshit]

hey guys, someone recorded me apparently lol

[natbplease]

nvm

[darael]

Something that will never not be funny to me:

Phishing emails claiming to be from my email service.

Either they'll claim that I've exceeded my quota and need to buy more, or that my password is about to expire.

Why is this so funny? Because it's my email service. I run the servers myself. There is no "[redacted].org Support Team", there is no "[redacted].is billing department", there's just me.

Anyway clearly my spamassassin needs some tweaking.

[puppycharmz]

a little addispalmon treat for the addispalmon enjoyers

[guavagyal]

I love it how when I apply for a job nowadays, I either get ghosted, rejected, spam calls, or phishing emails (that's been persistent lately). but I'm sure it's my fault for not getting a job at this point, I just need to re-do my resume for the 80th time or kiss some recruiter's ass on LinkedIn.