Paypal From India.............beware!

[Geo]

Just had this PayPal email from India of all places. It's a complete load of **BLEEP** as my PayPal account is healthy and running just fine.

[bobm12]

Looks like somebody out there is looking for new ID and Passwords to buy Christmas presents on ebay! Careful!

 

Cheers,

 

Bob

[ro63rto]

Sooo many spelling mistakes.

Also big give away its not #######@paypal.com AND they always use your name and not "Customer"

[autowind]

Be especially cautious of any unknown email that comes with an attachment,  it will more than likely be a virus!

 

It's a minefield even for the computer savvy,  I think the best advice is " If in doubt, DON'T even open it ".

[WillFly]

I've had these from time to time - just deleted them instantly.

[clockboy]

Thieving bast∗∗ds

[Mark]

My gmail spam folder is full of the Phishing emails - just ignore them.

[Geo]

I was sure you guys would be switched on with regard this. If ithis post saves one getting their fingers burnt it was worth it.

[clockboy]

Spot on Geo. There are lots of these scams a neighbour sold an item on eBay and the next day received a message from the purchaser asking for my neighbours PayPal details. To cut the story short my neighbour contacted eBay and it was as suspected another scam and the sellers account was removed from eBay. Whilst on the subject of scams passwords are not as secure as you would like to think.

I have a good friend who amongst many things is a Sage consultant/expert and one of the companies he was doing work for had dismissed the guy who used to do all their sage work and when he left he also left with the password. Yep know one else in the company knew the password. 

The work around in the end was a company in the USA was contacted and they cracked the password for $100 in 30 mins.

I was reliably told there is software out there in the Pirate world that can crack passwords up to 14 digits.

If guys can hack into the Whithouse computers what chance do we have!!!

Spooky

Edited December 22, 2014 by clockboy

[autowind]

In a previous life I worked for BT,  their computer system (at least the one I used) allowed 3 attempts at logging on, after the third failed attempt the terminal shut down,  I think for 15 minutes.  It would not be possible to sit there all day hammering in different passwords in the hope of getting the correct one.  Any firm running a system that allows multiple logon attempts probably deserves to be hacked.  I am quite safe on my home computer because even I don't know what most of the passwords for things are,  so a hacker has no chance,  unless of course they have planted a key logger.

[clockboy]

Wrt ,

Not everyone is a cautious as yourself.

It was recently reported that 70% of people in the UK use the same password for every application !!!!!!

If the Whitehouse was successfully hacked into & recently Sony then just how safe are we humble siblings.

[Mark]

Nobody is safe. The best you can do is change your passwords regularly. Don't store them in plain text on your computer. And use at least 1 uppercase, 1 lowercase, 1 number and 1 character like "*&^%$£@!".

This will reduce your risk significantly.

[canthus]

I read somewhere that include the above in the longest password you can remember.  It appears that if you just use a phrase you know well and change some the letters to numbers or symbols, then it will take a long time to hack.   For example - Myoldman5aidFollowthe#21van    has 27 characters so billions of billions of combinations to be tested to hack it, and it is easy to just change 1 character regularly!

Edited December 22, 2014 by canthus

[bobm12]

I'm dead in the water! I can't remember any password bigger than 3 characters...or maybe 2... :)

 

In any case, making up long passwords that make sense to you and changing characters to numbers, symbols and capitals are a good way to go. I do all the time and have never had any problems.

 

 

Cheers,

 

The virus in Bob's computer.

 

:D

 

PS. I joke about it BUT include some real suggestions/reaffirmation of what has been said. This is a serious matter and thank Geo for the heads up. Not taking it lightly at all!!