In a message dated 2/3/2003 11:41:07 AM Eastern Standard Time, ZinkZ10C@aol.com
writes:
>A while ago I did get a legitimate credit card update request from e bay. It
>asked me to go to the e bay site and update my info. I used regular e bay
>page links and not those contained in the e mail just in case the mail was
>fake.
Watch out even for something like that. I haven't (yet) seen it with eBay, but
I have seen it with PayPal, where scammers set up an "update" page that has all
the graphics and bells and whistles of the real PayPal site. What it's missing
is the all-important "http_s_://.... for secure site.
I did get caught up in that once, along with many other PayPal users. PayPal
was very good about dealing with the problem and did recover (or at least
restore to my account) the "misappropriated" funds...and I did change my PayPal
password several times over that period. No problems since.
FWIW, the real AOL has never asked me to update my credit card billing
information. Even though the particular credit card account is still active, I
got a new card sometime ago with a new expiration date. I have to assume that
the billing dept. didn't really care what the expiration date on the card in my
wallet was so long as the automatic billing process continued to reimburse AOL
for all the trouble they go to in order to provide me with re
li
able e-mail servi
ce. ;-)
Seriously, in summary:
-Check out the headers in any e-mail asking you for account updates.
-Check out the links in those e-mails.
-Make sure when updating these accounts that the site is secure, i.e.,
https://oksite.com v. http://seeminglyokbutnot.com.
-Remember that these sites almost never send out solicitous e-mails asking for
account verification, and they often tell you that.
--Andy Mace
p.s. Or, you can simply send all your credit card information to me, and I'll
be happy to take care of these problems for you. :-)
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