I got 4 emails yesterday; 2 from Yahoo and 2 from PayPal asking me to verify my account by sending my username and password AND my bank account and credit card info. I obviously knew that this was a scam from the get-go, but don't be fooled and send in your info. The email originates from an address in Russia (http://admitry2005.wsh.ru/) and the reply for the PayPal email is support@verifyPaypal.com - an address that is not owned or run by PayPal. The emails look authentic and very convincing, but do not be fooled and send in your info to these scabs, please. Just thought you'd all like to know, especially since a lot of us use PayPal in the Markeplace. Laurie

Keep in mind that you should never ever ever divulge any account information to anyone from an emailed request. Yahoo specifically tell their subscribers that they never ask for personal information via email.

That's true. NO ONE who has any business sense will EVER ask you for your passwords, and especially bank account or cc info thru the email. I looked at the headers as soon as these hit my mailbox because I KNEW they had to be fake to be asking for such sensitive info. But there are people who will be fooled and that's the sad part. Those emails looked REALLY authentic...just goes to show how sophisticated these scums are getting. There are plenty of people who don't know any better than to send in their info. Makes me so mad! Ugh! Laurie

I got one from paypal, looked at it and simply deleted it. I was surprised to get it, because I didn't end up taking a paypal account, but now I know why I got the message. Thankyou. As Sam Therapy says I wouldn't have taken any notice of it anyway.

Should have kept the e-mails, and contacted the FBI and Interpol, sending them copies. That's REALLY serious sh!t, man. P.S... People tempted to get "Pay-Pal" accounts, might want to see how poorly they've been know to treat customers: http://www.paypalsucks.com/

Now that Ebay has bought out PayPal, I would think that the customer service will improve dramatically.

Domain name: verifypaypal.com Registrant Contact: Michail Semyonov (msenevov@fromru.com) 5591267 pr. Prosvescheniya 20/47 St. Peterburg, 196223 RU Administrative Contact: Michail Semyonov (msenevov@fromru.com) 5591267 pr. Prosvescheniya 20/47 St. Peterburg, 196223 RU Billing Contact: Michail Semyonov (msenevov@fromru.com) 5591267 pr. Prosvescheniya 20/47 St. Peterburg, 196223 RU Technical Contact: Michail Semyonov (msenevov@fromru.com) 5591267 pr. Prosvescheniya 20/47 St. Peterburg, 196223 RU DNS servers: NS1.AVAHOST.NET NS2.AVAHOST.NET Created: Mon Oct 14 2002 20:22:18 Expires: Tue Oct 14 2003 20:22:18

Interesting.... Laurie

Maybe we should ask him for his bank account information! ;0)

I forgot: domain: WSH.RU type: CORPORATE nserver: ns.wsh.ru. 195.14.63.32 nserver: ns1.wsh.ru. 62.205.191.29 state: REGISTERED, DELEGATED org: Ultra-D Ltd. phone: +7 095 5072685 fax-no: +7 095 5072685 e-mail: info@wsh.ru registrar: RUCENTER-REG-RIPN created: 2002.09.25 reg-till: 2003.09.25 source: RIPN Last updated on 2003.01.20 06:42:51 MSK/MSD BTW, if you have any interest in finding out domain ownership, try a search for WHOIS servers. They list the public information regarding any registered domain. There are some that deal with the primary TLDs (Top Level Domains): .com, .gov., .mil, etc. So, make sure you use the right WHOIS service for the right TLD. Domains for foreign countries have different servers, too. Thus concludes Internet Domain Fact Finding 101. ;0)

Don't get all comfortable. I have a friend who is a hacker. He can routinely pull up a long list of every account on paypal with password and username intact. Fortunately, he just does it to be able to do it. He's an old school hacker. But the new school hackers aren't in it for fun anymore. They're in it for theft and destruction. There's no such thing as a secure server.

bonestructure, is that really YOU? Well the hell have ya been???!! Nice to "see" you. It's been awhile. You probably don't even remember my name anymore. You are right about hackers. They are getting so sophisticated too. It just ain't right. We got a post over at Big-i from the "supposed" webmaster of the host that these were coming from saying that the site had been closed. Laurie

Yeah, it's me lol. I've been around. Not posting many images because I find the images I have been working on take me longer that it used to. I've also been trying to improve my modeling skills. I've also been very sick and in desperate financial shape as always and not even finding the small job work I used to do. Been living on instant mashed potatoes and spaghetti noodles since new years. Though someone did give me Macromedia Studio for xmas, and that was a bomb for me, since I've been wanting to learn flash for a while now, hust to make goofy animations and interfaces lol. Sending out many resumes and getting very very few replies. Trying to give deeper critiques and be more helpful when I look through the galleries. Trying to stay out of politics here on this site as well, since frankly, I just don't care. Finally got closure on one issue that has deeply affected my life for over twenty years. I had to act like an asshole to get the closure, which is completely unnatural for me, but it had to be done. The old school hackers did it mostly for fun and to learn. And I freely admit, I used to be one of them. They weren't out to hurt people. It was enough just to show you could do it. The new guys tho, they seem to be out to cause damage. Maybe I'm weird but i just don't see the fun in hurting things, whether businesses or people. I can't even see the enjoyment in flaming people lol. I only brought this up because my friend has, a couple of times, given me URLS to various pages which contained long lists of usernames, passwords and account information, with paypal being high on the list. I could have literally gotten into anyone's account at paypal had I wanted. Fortunately, I'm not the kind of person who is inclined to theft, no matter how bad things might be, but it would have been very easy indeed. My friend mostly takes fiendish glee in hacking into porn sites. It's his thing, what can I say. He's a moron with a good heart and he's my friend in spite of himself lol.

Are you still sick? Dang, sorry to hear that. Seems like you've been sick for a long, long time. And I know how you feel about jobs too...I lost mine in November and no nibbles since. It's a really rotten job market. I may have to go back to waiting tables and I've been doing graphic design for the last 10 years. But there are just no jobs out there for it right now, at least not here in the Eastern U.S. It all so totally sux. I'll keep my fingers crossed that something comes along for you. And if it's any consolation, I like mashed potatoes and noodles :o). I miss your gallery critiques...brutal, but honest :o). Hope to see more of you. Be well! Laurie

I also received a suspicious e-mail from "PayPal Customer Support" with an e-mail address "staff@paypal.com" on September 6, 2002 titled PAYPAL ACCOUNT LOST "informing" me there was a problem with my PayPal account. The body of the e-mail said:
Welcome PAYPAL member, I am sorry to inform you that 300,000 of our data base has lost due to some technical problems. your account was one from those lost database so , we were temporarily unable to verify it as a registered user. Approximately 90 seconds ago, your verification was made void by loss of data. Now, due to PAYPAL verification protocol, it is mandatory for us to re-verify you. Please verify it by completing the form below. PAYPAL advises everyone to fill out the information so we won't have any misconfigured billing problems or termination of your PAYPAL account. Upon submitting your request you will not have to worry about the security of your account, and your information will be updated and stored again . please complete the form within 2 minutes of reading this.
Thank you.
PAYPAL STAFF
It then had a link, which I did NOT go to. I instead immediately contacted PayPal. I received a response back from them that they would look into it. I haven't heard anything since from them so not sure how far the investigation went, but I have saved the questionable e-mail just in case. Just the wording tipped me off it wasn't legitimate.

LOL! "The wording"... Kinda like "All your base are belong to us." ("Throw out your guns so we have somthing to shoot you with.")

I like: Upon submitting your request you will not have to worry about the security of your account,... Well, of course, because it will have been compromised by the idiot sending the email.