AOPA Credit Card scam

Roy Smith wrote:

After a half an hour of this, the tech says, "Sir, do you still have the
box the computer came in?". The hapless person on the phone admits that he
does. "OK, sir, what I want you to do is take the computer, put it back in
the box, and return it to the store you bought it from. You are obviously
too stupid to own a a computer".

True story, the problem was because the electricity was off, and the
computer owner thought it should work without any...

Tech was fired over that comment too...

I consider it Digital Darwinism

i like it!

Of course if they'd just stop selling computers at the grocery store...

On Sun, 20 Mar 2005 14:20:57 -0500, Roy Smith wrote:

That's the funny part. The sad part of it is that at least half of the
time, the problem is that the software that comes with these things is just
crap, and it's a miracle that most people can get it to work at all.


now .. this seems to be a good time for a little Apple advocacy ...

gd&rvvf

:-))

#m
--
It's not like I'm a terrorist or a hair dresser or anything.
http://www.ensight.org/archives/2005...ion/trackback/

wrote in message
h.net...
In article ,
says...


in reality the only real credit card scam is being run by the
credit
card companies themselves. if you happen to keep a balance on your card i
suggest you read that multi page fine print thing called terms and
conditions. that is the real scam. it is designed to get you in debt and
keep you there.

tony zambon
grumman 9941L

How do they make one buy things?

Have to agree... Having to pay an interest rate is a known fact to having a
credit card. Who in their right mind thinks that they will not be paying
interist rates on the card? Now where i do think things get fuzzy is when
they advertise a 0% 2.99% or whatever, then in the very very very very fine
print you find a fixed monthly service fee, and that the rate is only valid
for a few months before jumping massively. But then again... those are so
common who gets a 2.9% card without the expectation that its an introductory
offer? I carry two cards, I have a balance on one, and yes a rather
considerable part of each monthly payment goes to pay for that interest fee,
BUT i do that willingly to have the convinience of a line of credit, comes
in hand now, especially in online commerce and when cash/check isn't
feasable. I personally don't buy an item on the credit card unless the
convinience of using the card for that purchase is worth 12.98% of that
purchase price over a year. Do the cards themselves put you in debt...
NOPE.... bout like blaming the pencil for spelling errors, the purchasers
puts themselves in debt, its how they manage that debt that can actually
affect how much interest they pay, be irrisponsible with the debt and that
rate goes through the roof, pay on time and a good history and you may be
able to qualify for a lower rate, the ball is in the purchasers' hands. Now
you want to know of a good psuedoscam in finance? Look at home loans that
offer an amazingly low interest rate, but want a points fee..... got news
for you... that points fee is an interest rate you can't escape! traditional
interest expenses (not rates) can be lowered by paying off a loan early, but
since those points fees are wrapped up into the principle of the loan your
stuck paying them, even if you pay the whole enchilada off next month (which
in some states means you can be stuck paying a prepayment penalty... another
load of crap if you ask me.) Bottom line... know your loan be it a credit
card, HEL HELOC or whatever... if its worth it its your own damn fault you
are in debt.

Dave S wrote:
I have my email set up to forward messages from certain providers into
specifid sub-mailboxes...

So.. stuff that is really FROM ebay goes to an EBAY folder to be read...
and stuff really from my bank goes to its own folder. Helps cut down on
the riffraff..

Its not hard to set up and use... if you use Outlook or Netscape.

Hmmm. So you're using a Outlook or Netscape filter to sort your incoming mail
into mailboxes? ... and what field in the mail header are you using to do the
sort? ... and how can you be sure that field isn't being spoofed?

*No* legitimate business is going to send you an email asking for personal
information. Just don't respond, no matter how legitimate the reply address looks.

Dave B

Jay Somerset wrote:

The only way to be absolutely sure
would be to copy the URL to an ascii text editor that doesn't
understand what a URL is supposed to be, and cxheck that way.

Or save yourself a step and just set your email client to "text only" mode.


--
John T
http://tknowlogy.com/TknoFlyer
http://www.pocketgear.com/products_s...veloperid=4415
____________________

On Sun, 20 Mar 2005 07:40:12 -0600, "Jim Fisher"
wrote:

"Roy Smith" wrote in message news:roy-
They are also getting increasingly sophisticated. I used to be able to
tell immediately from the shoddy graphics that it wasn't the real thing.
Not long ago, I got one phishing for my Citibank info that I couldn't tell
apart from the real thing.

Well, perhaps cosmetically. There's so many other clues that it is a scam
that one has to wonder at who would actually respond to these things.

Recently, I received a very legitimate SunTrust Bank scam. I was bored and
decided to go ahead click the links and fill out the form with required (but
fake) information. Y'all ought to do it sometime. It is quite interesting.

They asked for my name, address, phone number, mother maiden name, Social
Security number, bank account & routing number, and other information that
was very personal that no bank would ever request. It is very difficult for
me to imagine someone who would be so naive or stupid enough to actually
enter real information.

Being a computing professional... I'd say about 90%, probably more.
These schemes are making *big* money, or they'd go away. Even the
spammers who use fake return addresses aren't worried. If they get
fined a few million it's only a drop in the bucket compared to what
they make.

If I ever do get a legit request via e-mail (which would really
surprise me) I'd never read it as they get trashed on the first line
or two if the spam checker doesn't catch them. So, if I really do owe
you money, don't bother with e-mail. :-)) You'll just get an
answering machine on the telephone.

What bank, credit card co, or organization would be dumb enough to
ask such things in an e-mail? (they do exist)

A bad one from the user end is using HTML e-mail. It looks pretty, but
always set them to text only. I do get the occasional "get a capable
HTML mail reader" comment though. :-)) At least every one is willing
to send me plain text versions of their news letters except the NRA
hasn't changed yet.

But, what the hey... with the money I've come into this last week from
three international lotteries, The widow who wants me to help her move
her late husband's money to the US, three oil investments, and 3 or 4
lawyers, trusts, estates, (you name 'em) I should have close to $200
million USD coming in. Oh, I forgot the two guys with terminal some
thing or other who want confidential help in moving their money out of
their country, or the guy who is trying to get his inheritance... I
should clear close to a quarter billion USD and all I have to do is
send them my bank account number.

Yup. In another month or two I can have all the planes I can fly and
all the toys I want ... and the Easter Bunny is going to leave solid
gold eggs in the front yard.

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com

I consider it Digital Darwinism. Some folks just don't need to own a
computer.

"Roger" wrote in message
But, what the hey... with the money I've come into this last week from
three international lotteries, The widow who wants me to help her move
her late husband's money to the US, three oil investments, and 3 or 4
lawyers, trusts, estates, (you name 'em) I should have close to $200
million USD coming in.

Hey! Butt outta my territory! I'm handling the widow thing.

I also have an ex-prince wanting my help. Top that!

--
Jim Fisher

On Sat, 19 Mar 2005 09:44:56 -0700, "Matt Barrow"
wrote:

George Patterson wrote in
:

AOPA warns that someone is trying the scam of spamming pilots
saying that MBNA needs for them to verify their account info.
These mails are not from MBNA. Do not click on the link.

I've discovered that most of them come from Korea and China. They pick
the images from a legitimate site but post your information to some
site in Seoul.

What? The South African connection is missing?

I assume that tracing such transaction would be fairly easy; is the problem
then that the host COUNTRIES are the laggards here in enforcing fraudulent
activity?

I can't recall any news about prosecutions for this "industry" that is
ripping off $$BILLIONS.


Very few are prosecuted, but they are making millions.

I guess the "zero tolerance" for pot users is MUCH MORE important.

Tis a bit difficult to grab someone out of a thrid world country.

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com

On Sat, 19 Mar 2005 07:42:40 -0500, Roy Smith wrote:

In article ,
"Steve Foley" wrote:

What they've been doing recently is opening the real site with the address
bar showing, and opening a login popup, showing no address bar. More often
than not, the popup doesn't work. They're getting shut down pretty quickly,
but I'm sure some people are going for it. I usually type in a few
obscenities after I send the report to the correct party.

They are also getting increasingly sophisticated. I used to be able to
tell immediately from the shoddy graphics that it wasn't the real thing.
Not long ago, I got one phishing for my Citibank info that I couldn't tell
apart from the real thing.

It also used to be that you could be careful and look in the status bar (or
wherever your particular browser shows you a preview of a link the mouse is
hovering over) to make sure it was real. The text on the screen would say
"www.citibank.com", but the URL preview would say "123.456.78.90" and you'd
know it was a fake. Now they're building URLs in the links with non-ascii
characters which display in your browser looking like the real thing, but
resolve to a different IP.

They've even gone farther than that, with redirects.
I've gone to sites that looked and felt real. The URL was real, but
the site actually wasn't.

This is one of the hazards of using HTML e-mail. I use text only.
Clicking on the link can take you to the bogus site while typing in
will not. Usually with plain text you see the actual link, rather
than the bogus one.

But they are getting very sophisticated.

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com