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scams?

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judyofthewoods

Joined: 29 Jan 2005
Posts: 804
Location: Pembrokeshire

Posted: Wed Feb 16, 05 2:19 pm Post subject: scams?

A friend of mine had an email from a person from an address which was very close to one of his own accounts. The email was just a cheeky statement, but what was disconcerning was that the email was sent to his other address! Supposedly a lot of scam emails start that way to trap the recipient into an exchange. The fact that the sender knew both his email adresses, seems to point to some clever scam. At one point, before knowing that the sender sent it to his normal address, I used my 'disposable' email account to write to the person in the hope of gleaning some more information but had only one inconclusive reply. After he told me about the email having been sent to his normal account I was getting worried about opening up my own computer to this invader. Does anyone know about these scams, how do they work, can they get into your computer by corresponding, how would they know about multiple accounts, does firewall protect, is that how ID theves operate?

Treacodactyl
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Sat Feb 19, 05 4:52 pm Post subject:

I think most of them just try and trick people into giving away their account details and passwords.

It is also advisable to never use the same password for different organisations. Don't for example use the same login name and password for your bank as you would for a site like this or a mail order company.

The advice is never to give any details out unless you know exactly who it is and then no company should ask for a pin or password in an e-mail. If anyone is unsure ask for a telephone number & call them back, or e-mail them using your usual contact e-mail.

I once had a very long conversation with a back that was just trying to confirm who I was when I opened an online isa. As I wasn't expecting a call I refused to give them DOB, NI number etc. They were very understanding.

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