Working at Home on the Internet

Is Someone Hijacking My E-mail?

I have written about different types of Scams, Spams and basic Underhanded types of intrusions on Blogs, Websites and E-mail. Most of these things can be overcome with Plug-ins like Akismet or different Filters on your E-mail server (I use SpamAssisin) or even with some ToolBars.

I have come across something that is troubling in my E-mail since I got my own domain with E-mail capabilities.

Return Mail…

That doesn’t sound too ominous does it? The problem is, I NEVER SENT any E-mail to Any of the Addresses I am getting the return mail from. Since I use Outlook Express as my mail client, I don’t seem to be having real problems with normal spam.

What I’m afraid of is Someone else is using my E-mail address from my Host Service (BlueHost) to Send Spam. I am not getting returns on the addresses I use on any of my sites, but the actual Mail Administrator account.

I will be sending an E-mail to BlueHost regarding this apparent misuse of my account. I have no idea even how to start in resolving this problem other than that.

Suggestions??? PLEASE!!!

Before I run into Bigger Problems.

Thanks,

Joe

Update: I did open a ticket with BlueHost, and within minutes I got an answer. It was… “Someone could be using your mail server to send out e-mail.” REALLY? They want me to send a copy of the E-mail, inculding header… If I had that, I would already KNOW who was Hijacking my E-mail, right?

In the middle of writing this I got a confirmation from them that they need a copy of the E-mail!?! I don’t have a copy of the email… Stay Tuned.

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September 19th, 2006 at 03:17pm | Posted by Joe | Attitude, Rants, Scams and Legitimate | 7 reader remarks | Print This Post

Another Phishing Trip

 

Somebody is on another Phishing Trip.

The other day I read on SympleByte about the new phishing filter on IE7 with some interest, but didn’t pay all that much attention (sorry DavidC). Then I remembered getting something in my E-mail back in April about my PayPal account that turned out to be a fraud.  I reported it to PayPal and even wrote a post about it.  That Scam E-mail was phishing for my account information.

Well, yesterday I got another E-mail of the same type, different link to click, more insidious, they were looking for my LOG-IN Information to my PayPal Account.  I didn’t even click the link (smart huh?) but you can tell by the link itself what they are looking for.

 

Here is a copy of the E-Mail:

Dear PayPal Member,

During our regularly schedule account maintenance and verification we have detected a slight error in your billing information on file with PayPal.
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 within our processors.

Therefore your account has been temporarily suspended. We need you to confirm your identity in order to regain full privileges of your account.

If this is not completed by August 23, 2006, we reserve the right to terminate all privileges of your account indefinitly, as it may have been used for fraudulent purposes. We thank you for your cooperation in this manner.
To confirm your identity please follow the link below:

https: // www paypal com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_login-run (I de-linked it)

Thank you for your patience in this matter.

PayPal - Customer Service

Please do not reply to this e-mail as this is only a notification. Mail sent to this address cannot be answered.

 

Of course they don’t want you to send an E-Mail, it would be returned as it is a FAKE ADDRESS.  And, if you get something like this in your E-Mail, DON’T CLICK THE LINK!  Contact PayPal, log-in and report it.

Oh, did I mention that the E-Mail was sent to one of my Other Mail Accounts, Not the one I have with PayPal.  That was a dead giveaway right there.

 

Update:  I just got something similar from EBay, to the wrong E-Mail address and for something I did not purchase.  Since when does EBay collect Bills for Members?

August 21st, 2006 at 11:27am | Posted by Joe | General, Scams and Legitimate | 4 reader remarks | Print This Post

A Letter from Debbie Gum (Sean Gum’s Wife)

I just received an E-Mail from Debbie Gum, Sean Gum’s wife. In it she tries to explain that Sean has lost everything from the MagMoney, Leads and Affiliates Online Businesses. Read it if you were affected or participated in any of Sean Gum’s Programs.

Here is a copy in it’s entirety:

I am Sean’s wife. Sean works hard at trying to build an on-line business. We are very sorry that he lost almost all of his customers, as well as a lot of money, from the group leads business. He never meant to take anyone’s money. We are sorry about that. The business took a fast nose dive that began right after Christmas, 2005. Sean tried to recover from that by offering promotions for leads, as well as finding internet traffic through the affiliate program. It all sank for him. He has refunded several customers through pay-pal and several customers have received refunds through charge backs from their credit card companies. He even paid out one law suit.

 My husband did give fair notice of 30 days in January to try and fill as many customer leads orders as he possibly could. Filling customer lead orders is not as easy as people may think. It is not something you just pull out of your hat and you have a lead for a customer. He spent many hours during the day, working into the night, to try and find ways to recover leads, money and ways to pay out affiliates.

 Maybe if more people had taken the time to do charge backs or refunds, instead of wating their time smearing Sean’s name all over the Internet, they might have had better results in obtaining their money. He did notify both lead ordering customers, as well as affiliates, of the problems he was experiencing. It’s not like he took all of their money and ran. I can vouch for that. Sean has been working hard not only to bring in income for his family so we can keep food on the table and a roof over our heads, but also at trying to pay out refunds. But- people needed to go through the proper channels to be refunded. He is still paying out refunds to people. We did not take the money and run- trust me. We lost the group leads business, lost a lot of money, lost our health insurance and had to go on Medicaid, plus had a car repossessed. Before you go judging my husband and accusing him of being a scam artist, ask yourself: What did it take Sean to run the leads business and be able to keep it going financially? Do any of you out there have any idea what it takes to start a leads business and the stress of keeping up with a leads business? Have any of you even taken a glimpse into his life to see how hard he has been working since January to try and make things right for his customers and affiliates?

 Before you judge him and blog his reputation all over the internet, ask yourself- if you had a business going down faster than you anticipated, would you have the money up front to refund every single person or place you owed money to? Chances are, if you have a mortgage to pay and kids to feed, you would not have the necessary funds to refund everybody right away.

Thank You,Debbie Gum 

I am sure some of you got the same letter. I don’t have an opinion as to the losses he (or you) incurred. I am just passing this on to anyone who is interested in Sean Gum, MagMoney or any of his affiliate programs.

Joe

July 31st, 2006 at 05:49pm | Posted by Joe | General, Scams and Legitimate, Work at Home | reader remarks | Print This Post