# Two phishing emails - same alleged transaction



## WobblyHand (Jan 12, 2022)

Weird.  Today was the day to receive two suspicious emails.  One wasn't apparently good enough.  You know, the kind of email where there's some purchase that you wouldn't buy that you supposedly bought that morning, from eBay.  Coming from a suspicious person, labeled "PayPal_Team<somename1@gmail.com>".  Like a PayPal employee would use gmail, come on.  Using a vaguely PayPal-like logo in the email.  And of course a bogus PayPal customer service phone number.  (PayPal likes to hide their number.)  A cursory internet search revealed a totally different phone number.  And a official admonition, near the bottom of the page that I have 24 hours from the date of the transaction to open a dispute.  This is a typical attempt to inject some urgency, so the victim will act hastily.  

Nonetheless, a little baffled.  Did I inadvertently buy something?  Never have before, but hey, maybe there's a first time.  You know, CRS and all that.  So looked up my PayPal and eBay activity, which showed nothing, my bank card activity, which also showed nothing.  Happy to have found nothing, but really don't like this.  These emails are just another version of a con job, attempting to take advantage of people.  It's really low, low behavior.  

So, I reported emails to spoof@paypal.com.  Reported the gmail violations of terms of service to Google of the 2 usernames.  Don't know if I should bother reporting it to eBay.  Not expecting any action by any of these companies, but it did make me feel a little better.

This scam/phishing attempt must work sometimes.  Really sad and disappointing to see folks stooping this low.  

On the good side, I got to watch a video of my grandson being tickled and laughing his head off.  He's two and a ball of fire.  That helped lift the mood.


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## Just for fun (Jan 12, 2022)

It's bad sometime, you really need to be cautious.  I have had a few phishing emails lately myself.

Glad you had a good time watching your grandson.


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## markba633csi (Jan 12, 2022)

Emails? Heck I've had phone calls from scammers who make up stories about fraudulent purchases on my Amazon account and wanting information so they can "straighten it out"
Yeah right- I just say thanks for notifying me and hang up after checking my account and finding nothing
-M


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## matthewsx (Jan 12, 2022)

I deal with these every day. See if you can report it to your email provider.

John


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## WobblyHand (Jan 12, 2022)

markba633csi said:


> Emails? Heck I've had phone calls from scammers who make up stories about fraudulent purchases on my Amazon account and wanting information so they can "straighten it out"
> Yeah right- I just say thanks for notifying me and hang up after checking my account and finding nothing
> -M


Oh, I get those too, but I have my phone screen those calls.  Nowadays, very few get through.


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## WobblyHand (Jan 12, 2022)

matthewsx said:


> I deal with these every day. See if you can report it to your email provider.
> 
> John


Good idea.  Looking at the source of the email shows the X-Spam-Flag = NO, but the X-CTCH-Spam flag = Suspect.  Probably should not have made it through my ISP.


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## Winegrower (Jan 12, 2022)

I got a phone call from some random area code from what sounded like "somebody at someplace".    Noisy, bad accent, I just hung up.    Next day, same call, same "somebody at someplace".   Hung up again.   Next day "somebody at someplace" called again.   I said "why do you keep calling"?  He said "I'm your insurance agent, time to renew".   Oh.


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## savarin (Jan 12, 2022)

I use google translate to translate a really obscene offensive statement into Hindi.
I practice it to get the accent right and get it memorised.
All our scam calls come on the landline so I'm primed every time that rings.
I always answer sounding like a doddering old fart (which I am) show alarm and worry in my voice.
When they get to the bit about asking for details I ask in a quavering voice if I can ask something.
You can feel the elation as they think they've got me I then come out with my memorised statement.
They go absolutely ballistic its fantastic.
I dont get to do it much these days as a lot of the calls are a recorded message so its just a hang up job.


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## matthewsx (Jan 12, 2022)

I led one of these email scammers along way back in the mid 2000's. They got all the way to sending me a bogus cashiers check which was intercepted by the USPS Postal Inspector. 

I was contacted some time later and informed that the scammer was being prosecuted, they were in Chicago, made me feel real good....

John


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## aliva (Jan 13, 2022)

I received a few texts about a compromised Amazon account and I should log in with the address they provided .I just block the number.

I've also receive phone calls that the  RCMP has issued and arrest warrant for me and that I should press 1 to speak to a rep. I did this with full intentions to screw with them.  I told them to send the RCMP over soon because I'm leaving  shortly with my plane to the Bahamas to check on my secret bank account. So far no visits from the RCMP, I'm still waiting.


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## Just for fun (Jan 13, 2022)

I answered a call once and told the guy I was tracing the call and location and I was going to hunt him down.  He said "Good luck Tim, Good luck" and promptly hung up.


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## Chewy (Jan 13, 2022)

Must be that time of the year.  Just answered two ads for trailers.  Renting a Uhaul to go to Atlanta and told my wife's boss that was BS.  She didn't buy a cargo van like I told her to a few years ago. Instead bought a pickup.  Been fighting the weather ever since.  Answered a Facebook post for a 12x 16 enclosed for $800 and a Craigslist post for a 7 X 16 enclosed, $1K.  Both are going through Ebay Motors.  You pay, they hold the money in escrow and deliver the trailer.  You have 5 days to look it over and confirm purchase.   Got the invoice.  They want to be paid in Ebay cards,1,  or Ebay and Best Buy cards, the other.  Invoices are totally different. Called Ebay and they don't have an escrow arraignment.  Some auctions take the whole list of payments, some take money order.  The order numbers don't show up in the Ebay database.  I informed both sellers that the only way I was interested was to go see the vehicle and title and pay with PayPal.  Haven't heard from either in response. 
I'm also getting the Amazon "fixes" stated above.   It's hard to fix an account when you don't have one.


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## MikeInOr (Jan 13, 2022)

I have been getting similar robo-calls this past week.  One was my electric bill is over due and my service is going to be shut off.  Another was about a $1500 Mac Book purchase off Amazon.


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## savarin (Jan 15, 2022)

Had another one yesterday, managed to waste 23 mins of his time before I let rip.
It was a bit disappointing as he never said a word just hung up in the middle of it.
I know where all the calls originate from.
Our major telecom company sent all its data to India some years ago to set up its call centre.
The database was copied and sold to these lowlifes.
The give away is they always ask if I'm me@old address, obviously I say yes knowing I havnt been with that telco for at least 10 years


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## vtcnc (Jan 19, 2022)

I forget which YouTuber does this, but he does a voice changer as an old lady and just messes with the scammers. It’s pretty funny and you kind of feel like you are along for the ride. Very satisfying watching them lose their minds to this “old lady.”


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Dabbler (Jan 19, 2022)

There is a youtube white hat hacker that hacks into scammers computers while they are on the phone.  He plants a bomb on their computer so when all is said and done they  have a nicely reformatted primary partition.

Mark Rober (on Youtube) has also been 'white hat' ing against scammers and it is hilarious!


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## WobblyHand (Jan 20, 2022)

Dabbler said:


> There is a youtube white hat hacker that hacks into scammers computers while they are on the phone.  He plants a bomb on their computer so when all is said and done they  have a nicely reformatted primary partition.
> 
> Mark Rober (on Youtube) has also been 'white hat' ing against scammers and it is hilarious!


Think I've watched one of those videos.  In one of the videos, the hacker _victim_ actually deletes files from the remote computer.  It was both funny and frightening at the same time.  Wouldn't want to cross that hacker!


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## Dabbler (Jan 20, 2022)

@WobblyHand It would be a good idea to never cross any competent hacker;  Most computer systems are wide open to a variety of techniques.


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