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Feb. 19, 2007 This goes back to around August of 2004, when I had already decided to come to South America for a lengthy, if not permanent, stay. I had made only one online purchase before that time, with Greyhound, and the amount was only $20. I bobbled it and had to redo it, so it ended up costing me $40. But I was confident that I had learned how to do it right. So after debating with myself about buying air tickets from Los Angeles to Buenos Aires online, I finally succumbed to the attractive ease of doing it that way. Checking online, I found Orbitz Travel, and negotiated the purchase on the spot, receiving an e-ticket from the computer printer. Actually, I was in the Los Angeles Public Library's main location at Fifth and Flower in downtown LA. I had used my Visa debit card, issued by Washington Mutual Bank. I had never even seen an e-ticket before, and I was curious and leery about the whole affair. Of course, in buying the ticket I had entered my Visa number, along with the 3-digit security code, expiry date and all the other information requested. About an hour later, I got an e-mail purporting to be from eBay, saying that my account needed updating. I had never seen such an e-mail before. I immediately jumped to the erroneous conclusion that this was a confirmation related to the flight tickets. The e-mail contained a questionnaire asking me to fill in all sorts of information: name, address, ATM card numbers, security codes, etc. I did this all very perfunctorily, not even suspecting that anything was amiss. Even when I got to the line that requested my PIN number, I just typed it in automatically. Finally, I got to the end of the page, and there was an instruction to click to continue to page 2. I clicked but page 2 did not appear. I tried again and again, but I never got to page 2. My first alarm was that I was jeopardizing the confirmation of my flight. But it struck me as curious that the questionnaire should have asked me for my PIN number. So I entered 'eBay scam' in Altavista's search box. One of the search results was from scumware.com. Their page on the eBay scam presented a perfect facsimile of the page I had just filled out. If I had given all my information to swindlers on page 1, naturally I would not have had to reach page 2, as they would have already gotten all the information that they wanted. Still it would have been a smoother scam if they had had a page 2, thanking you and expressing their appreciation for your business. That would have lulled the victim's suspicions. I immediately left a message online with Washington Mutual, but sometimes they don't respond ti their e-mail for several hours. I was just too uneasy, so I called them and reported the fraud, canceling the card. I had to wait about a week or two for a new card. It was with a real sigh of relief as I kept checking my Washington Mutual account that no one managed to get any of my money. And that experience has made me very cautious about unsolicited mail. There's even an e-scam that opens up an exact replica of Washington Mutual's home page if you click where they tell you to. It's a little scary. You have to be careful. ------------ About the author Thomas Keyes: I have written two books: A SOJOURN IN ASIA (non-fiction) and A TALE OF UNG (fiction), neither published so far. I have studied languages for years and traveled extensively on five continents. Email: udikeyes@yahoo.com Comment on this article here! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
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