A few minutes ago, I cleaned up my inbox and found the following warning email from “eBay” threatening me that my “eBay account has been suspended.”
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
from: eBay
subject: Your eBay Account Has Been Suspended
Hello Member,
Your monthly eBay Invoice is now available for online viewing.
Invoice Date: Mar 25, 2008
Amount Due: $47.34
You can review your current Invoice details and Account Status at any time by clicking this link:
View Invoice –> links to http:// signin.cg5il.com/ ~cg5il/images
/.s/ws/eBayISAPI.dll%3fSignIn&ru=http%253A/
For future reference, you can access your invoice by following these steps:
1. Go to the eBay Home page.
2. Click My eBay at the top of the page, and sign in with your eBay User ID and password.
3. Click the “Seller
Account” link (below My Account in the left navigation menu).
4. Click the “Invoice” link.
Regards,
2008 eBay, Inc.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
If, after seeing this email you immediately clicked the link and tried to log in to your eBay account, congratulations! You’ve been officially victimized by an email phisher!
A phishing email, just like the one above, usually looks like an official letter from a trusted source, such as a bank, credit card company, payment processor, or online merchant designed to steal one’s personal data such as credit card numbers, passwords, account login information, etc.
It usually bears cloaked links that do not actually lead to the official website. In the case of the eBay phishing email above, the embedded link in “View Invoice” is NOT an eBay site but a fake site: http:// signin.cg5il.com/ ~cg5il/images/.s/ws/eBayISAPI.dll%3fSignIn&ru=http%253A/
Phishing emails normally contain a sense of urgency too that threatens the recipient that something worse might happen if he does not act immediately. The worst happens, however, the moment the recipient falls for the trick. His credit cards could be used to make unauthorized purchases and his identity stolen and used to scam other people.
So before you click on the links of those weird emails, think twice. The email you are dealing with might not really be an official email, but rather a phishing email.
Browse to the other articles below to learn more about phishing and how to protect yourself against this threat:
