Warning ! Phishing Attempts !

[cityzen 1]

Hi everybody,I received a strange mail a couple of days ago, from a guy saying he was from hotmail maintenance, saying to follow the instructions as described in the attached PDF.NEVER DO IT, of course.By curiousity I went to the site of the sender: it doesn't exist.I went to the site they say: smsvc.net/msn[dot]com A similar page as the hotmail appears asking your address and passwordIf you also received this mail, make sure to change your password, and check what sensitive infos might be stolen.The whois doesn't give infos about the owner of this site, as it's has a private protection.Does anyone know how to act against them? Black listing this site isn't enough, I would like the owner to be officially known as a THIEF.Thank you

[jlhaslip 4]

Okay, here is the first lesson you need to learn about email spam and phishing attempts.The above post describes a classic version of a bad effort to scam you. The email was supposed to be regarding a "hotmail" email account but the reply was to an MSN.com address. Does that make sense to you? Me neither.When a link is found in most email software, by hovering over the link, you can find out where the link wants to send you and then compare it to the stated problem. Especially be careful about replies to a free and open registration email address like msn, hotmail, yahoo, etc because the scammer can get those addresses easily by registering with unconfirmed (false) information and this will be a major clue to the possibility of a scam in action.Glad you didn't fall for this one and I hope my suggestion to compare the source and the target will avoid issues in the future.

[cityzen 1]

Thank you Jhaslip,As a friend of mine, who's 90 years old has been scamed by this kind of guys, I decided to take some action against.I already contacted their webhosting, privacyprotect.org and their domain resseller to report this abuse and activity, with some chance they'll give me their name.I really can't stand with this kind of people, but I know I won't catch them. At least I would like to know which mediums they are using to pay this web services and block them the best I can... Any suggestions?

[sheepdog 10]

I wish you the very best of luck catching them. I hate these kinds of people too. Thieves are down there on the bottom of my list of disgusting humans. I h ave not even the smallest shred of respect for anyone who makes their living by taking somehting that is not theirs from somebody else. Believe it or not, I put them even below murderers, they do what they do deliberatly and on purpose. A lot of people convicted of murder acted in fits of anger, or even accidentally.

[rpgsearcherz 5]

Thank you Jhaslip,As a friend of mine, who's 90 years old has been scamed by this kind of guys, I decided to take some action against.
I already contacted their webhosting, privacyprotect.org and their domain resseller to report this abuse and activity, with some chance they'll give me their name.
I really can't stand with this kind of people, but I know I won't catch them. At least I would like to know which mediums they are using to pay this web services and block them the best I can... Any suggestions?

There's really not much you can do. It's really no different than someone coming to your house and telling you they work for your credit card company and need your credit card. With the only real difference being that online people are harder to find. And it's so wide-spread that finding everyone who runs these scams would be a major waste (at least in my opinion) of resources.

The only real way to battle it is to be more wary and not trust everyone.

[cityzen 1]

I wish you the very best of luck catching them. I hate these kinds of people too. Thieves are down there on the bottom of my list of disgusting humans. I h ave not even the smallest shred of respect for anyone who makes their living by taking somehting that is not theirs from somebody else. Believe it or not, I put them even below murderers, they do what they do deliberatly and on purpose. A lot of people convicted of murder acted in fits of anger, or even accidentally.

There's really not much you can do. It's really no different than someone coming to your house and telling you they work for your credit card company and need your credit card. With the only real difference being that online people are harder to find. And it's so wide-spread that finding everyone who runs these scams would be a major waste (at least in my opinion) of resources.
The only real way to battle it is to be more wary and not trust everyone.

I can forgive a thief if he's acting for some strong reasons, like getting the money urgently for the operation of his child... but never a coward that makes it as a style of life, and smiling like a donkey because he feels smarter than my friend who's 90 years old!!
People is not stupid, I encourage everybody to hunt this cowards till the end by all mediums, to report it to the authorities of their countries and make PUBLIC their names!!

[rpgsearcherz 5]

I can forgive a thief if he's acting for some strong reasons, like getting the money urgently for the operation of his child... but never a coward that makes it as a style of life, and smiling like a donkey because he feels smarter than my friend who's 90 years old!!People is not stupid, I encourage everybody to hunt this cowards till the end by all mediums, to report it to the authorities of their countries and make PUBLIC their names!!

I can definitely feel where you're coming from, and the majority of others would as well. But at the end of the day, I don't think they are really committing a crime. It's like you acting like you forgot your money in a restaurant and begging everyone to give you money just so you don't have to pay. Is it trickery? Yes. But is it an actual crime? I don't think so.

[cityzen 1]

I can definitely feel where you're coming from, and the majority of others would as well. But at the end of the day, I don't think they are really committing a crime. It's like you acting like you forgot your money in a restaurant and begging everyone to give you money just so you don't have to pay. Is it trickery? Yes. But is it an actual crime? I don't think so.

Ok, RGP, I can see clearly your point.
Then, if a stupid guy steal the keys of YOUR house and you find him sited in YOUR living room reviewing YOUR financial statements and private mails, you'll probably tell him:"Cheers my friend!! You are not a criminal!! You are not violating my privacy!! and I know you have only good intentions!! I'll make some coffee for you and then I'll introduce you to my wife!!"...
I'm not that cool as YOU are, my friend. I prefer to see this guy where he deserves: IN A JAIL !!
Edited November 26, 2012 by cityzen (see edit history)

[rpgsearcherz 5]

Ok, RGP, I can see clearly your point.Then, if a stupid guy steal the keys of YOUR house and you find him sited in YOUR living room reviewing YOUR financial statements and private mails, you'll probably tell him:"Cheers my friend!! You are not a criminal!! You are not violating my privacy!! and I know you have only good intentions!! I'll make some coffee for you and then I'll introduce you to my wife!!"...
I'm not that cool as YOU are, my friend. I prefer to see this guy where he deserves: IN A JAIL !!

There's a massive difference between the two situations though. Where I live (Texas -- I'm not sure about other states) if someone enters your residence you're allowed to use lethal force.

But there's still a big difference between dealing with someone sitting in your home and going on a vigilante justice spree, hunting them down.

[cityzen 1]

I totally agree with you RGP, Except for barbarians, hunting retards isn't something considered as acceptable...So, let's catch and report this freakies and let the appropriate authorities to do their job.Any advice to do it is most welcome!!(If I catch this guy I'll do a short tutorial )

Edited November 29, 2012 by cityzen (see edit history)

[rpgsearcherz 5]

I totally agree with you RGP,Except for barbarians, hunting retards isn't something considered as acceptable...
So, let's catch and report this freakies and let the appropriate authorities to do their job.
Any advice to do it is most welcome!!

(If I catch this guy I'll do a short tutorial )

Worth trying, I guess. It's just really hit-and-miss. I had someone write me a fake check in a mass scam spree. I didn't cash it before verifying it, and of course it didn't verify as it was written from a fake bank account. Called the police about it and they said these scams happen so often they don't have the manpower to handle them and therefore they don't even want the information about it as it will never go anywhere.

Where you're from it may be different. It sucks, but there's not much we can do past that.

[cityzen 1]

You are right RGP,As you seem to know, this guy pretended to be related with credit cards companies, impersonating by the way the hotmail's staff company (Microsoft). Neither Microsoft, nor credit cards companies, including Paypal, nor domain resellers, nor hosting providers, and almost any professional or human being appreciate this kind of guys.Here or wherever, police can't investigate every scams just because their resources are limited and that this scams implies international collaboration. This is the only reason, don't believe that you're aloud to do it. You have mediums to act against if you wish so. You can do your own investigation, tell to every web companies involved in this process to pay some attention on that activity and if they want to provide you with some further informations.If you get enough evidences, then yes, you can denounce this miserable to the police station closest to his house. And yes, they can do their own investigation properly and act as we expect them to do so!!

[rpgsearcherz 5]

You are right RGP,As you seem to know, this guy pretended to be related with credit cards companies, impersonating by the way the hotmail's staff company (Microsoft).
Neither Microsoft, nor credit cards companies, including Paypal, nor domain resellers, nor hosting providers, and almost any professional or human being appreciate this kind of guys.
Here or wherever, police can't investigate every scams just because their resources are limited and that this scams implies international collaboration. This is the only reason, don't believe that you're aloud to do it.
You have mediums to act against if you wish so. You can do your own investigation, tell to every web companies involved in this process to pay some attention on that activity and if they want to provide you with some further informations.
If you get enough evidences, then yes, you can denounce this miserable to the police station closest to his house. And yes, they can do their own investigation properly and act as we expect them to do so!!

You know, I did some thinking about this for you and I have what might be a resolution.

If you're able to figure out who the person is and somehow prove it, you can try contacting their ISP. Their ISP should have specific addresses for scams/spammers and if you can supply enough proof they can shut down their Internet and ban them from future accounts.

In a lot of cases I think this is one of the most detrimental things. There's really not a lot of ISP's for most people, so being permanently locked out of one can make them think twice about doing the same thing again (think about it as being like a three-strike system).