APCUG Reports
October-December 2008

An email supposedly from customerservice@mountain1st.com:

We are aware that some of our members have received fraudulent e-mails stating to click on a link to address an issue with their account. Please do not respond to this e-mail. It is not from Mountain First Bank and Trust.

For your security, your account has been temporarily locked out of the system. You will not be able to make purchases with your Check Card while this lock is in place. Please call customer service line at (800) 490-5702 for further assistance.

Please disregard this e-mail if you’ve already call us since the date this e-mail was sent.

We appreciate your prompt attention to this matter.

Thank you

Mountain First Bank and Trust Customer Service

Thank for your email. Mountain 1st did not send out this notification. This is a phishing scam. We have notified our security company to take down this site and have contacted the FBI for assistance.

Lee Beason, COO
Mountain 1st Bank

I got an email from Work From Home (noreply@j9sct.net) with a subject “If you have access to a computer.” If I did not have access to a computer, how the heck do they think I can read an email?

PayPal : Confirm Your Account (supposedly confirm@paypal.com, but the header shows xkrfeufqpliihrlgjeiojeyym@comcast.net) sent:

Dear PayPal member,

This e-mail was sent to you because we have detected an error in your billing information during our regular schedule account maintenance and verification. This might be due to either following reasons:

A recent change in your personal information (i.e. change of address).

Submitting invalid information during the initial sign up process.

An inability to accurately verify your selected option of payment due an internal error with our processors.

You have 24 hours to click the link below and confirm your PayPal personal information, otherwise your ATM Debit / Credit Card access will become restricted:

Click Here (would take me to http://80.122.91.58/.cgi-bin/.www.paypal.com/index.html)

Firefox warned me

as did Trend Micro (twice)

otherwise I would have seen a page that looks sort of like paypal (but not exactly).

All of the links on the page except the login screen go to the actual paypal site (so these pfishers were lazy)

Nancy David emailed me:

Hello please,

I know this may sound strange to you, receiving a mail from an unknown person, but condition forced me to do that.

I sent to you this email proposing to you my intentions to transfer my heritage of 4.5 MILLION EURO to your country for investments to enable me continue my studies.

I therefore wish to hear from you for an urgent response, . (comma and period???)

Thank you for your comprehension

Remain blessed. Nancy David

Gee Nancy, we would have to convert those Euros to dollars, and that is a lot of trouble, so I will let you see if you can find some other sucker to enable you continue your studies.

Wow that sounds like a fantastic offer. Maybe too good. Let’s take a look.

CRC guarantees that all approved members of ProductTestPanel.com will receive at least 3 products to review during their first 90 days of membership. Panel members do not have to pay for these products. However, we do require that members return a brief written survey no earlier than 30 and no later than 45 days after the receipt of any product for review.

So far that does not sound bad. Lets go a little firther.

To receive the free membership incentive gift you must complete all of the steps outlined herein.... (d) acquire two advertiser action points from each of PTP’s three Offer Groups for a total of six advertiser action points. Action points are earned when a PTP user fully completes an advertiser offer after accessing the offer

That is a little more problematic. What if I satisfy five, and can’t find a sixth one that I am willing to try. But it could (and will) get worse.

Please understand that this means completing two offers from the Top Offers group, two offers from the Prime Offers group, and two offers from the Premium Offers group. The Prime Offers group and Premium Offers group may be accessed from the PTP member area.

That is worse, because now rather than any six, I must choose two from one group, two from another group, and two from a third group. But it could (and will) get worse.

In cases of a financial offer such as a credit card, the card must be activated by making a purchase, balance transfer or cash advance in order for the offer to be considered “completed”, and the user must remain a card holder for at least 60 days. For paid retail offers you must accept the item/service and pay in full....

It just got worse. Some of the retail offers may require me to buy something and pay in full for it. What if some of the categoies require me to buy something really expensive. I would like to see all of the categories before I have to make a committment.

Please note that it may take up to eight weeks for our marketing partners to report to us that you have completed their offer. Please be patient while our marketing partners report back to us.

Now it is getting bad. I may have to wait 8 weeks to see if I got credit, but let us see if that is the only problem. I click to see what the offers are, and the first one is:

Voicemail Direct USA will charge a monthly fee of $14.95 to my local telephone bill unless I cancel my account within 72 hours.

The first offer is going to cost me $14.95 a month, and I only have one option, and that is to accept it. I.E. I can’t even see the other 11 offers until I accept this one.

Only 11 more survey questions to go!

I cancelled out, so I don’t have the slightest idea what the pther 11 were, and I on’t care any more. And I hope you don’t go as far as I did.

Supposedly from Huntington National Bank

Banking Alert: Action Required %MID

Dear business customer of Huntington National Bank:

Huntington National Bank is committed to safeguarding customer information and combating fraud. We have implemented industry leading security initiatives, and our online banking services are protected by the strongest encryption methods and security protocols available. We continue to develop new solutions to provide our online banking services and their customers with confidence and security.

The added security measures require all Huntington Business Online customers to complete on a regular basis Business Online Form.

Please use the hyperlink below to access Business Online Form:

http://businessonline.huntington.com/footer/process.jsp?id=801681504866736341871 4702878807322069056327791846664

Thank you for banking with us!

Huntington National Bank Customer Support

Notice it does not come from “huntington.com”, it comes from “businessonline.huntington.com.topoi2.cx”, and you go to the end of the URL, just before the “/footer”, and we see “topoi2.cx”, and CX is Christmas Island, but I don’t think you will find Santa Clause there, working for Huntington National Bank during the summer, while the elves are back at the North Pole making presents for next year.

Fortunately McAfee Site Advisor warned me.

You may want to get a free copy of Site Advisor from http://www.siteadvisor.com/

The email says “Update Notice For Your Computer”. Gee, my computer is sending me an update notice. Isn’t that nice. And it is not just text, it is a graphic file with graphs and everything.

I have several choices. I can “Check PC Speed”, or “Read more about this update”, or get “More Info”, or “Download Update now”. But since it is all one big graphic file whichever I click triggers what appears to be a quick test

(at least they detected which operating system I was running, which is not hard), and then I get the ad.

Included in the text is the statement

PC Booster is now available to you at an introductory discount of $10.00 OFF the USUAL of $39.95. Save even more, up to 42% when you add Modem Booster for just $10.00! NOTE: Special discount pricing is guaranteed through Thursday, April 17th, 2008 at 12 midnight. . This offer is exclusive, as you may not get this offer again once you leave this site.

Wow, I better hurry. I just have until midnight to take advantage of the offer, which I may not get again once I leave the site.

The only problem is when I looked at the offer yesterday, the deadline was Wednesday, April 16. Want to bet what it will be if I click on it tomorrow?