Can Microsoft save us from the phisers
2006-03-12 1 Comment
Can Microsoft Save the Net? – Wired
Working late one night a few months back, I was just about to sign off when I decided to check my email. At the top of my inbox was a message from PayPal, “confirming” a change in my email address. But I hadn’t changed the address. In an exhausted panic, I clicked the link to correct an obvious fraud.For a split second the browser opened not to PayPal but to an unrelated IP address. Then, almost instantaneously, the screen was replaced by what looked exactly like a PayPal window, requesting my password to sign in. This wasn’t PayPal; it was a phishing bot. Had I been just a little drowsier, I might have been snagged by the fraud in the very act of trying to stop it.
My Ramblings and experiments 
I periodically get messages like the one described, either purporting
to be from PayPal or eBay. As I have no account with either I assume this is some kind of con or hoax. I just this morning had a message supposedly from PayPal saying that I had successfully added a new address to the account. I had done no such thing.
I find that it is diffcult if not impossible to contact either PayPal or eBay unless you want to sign up and do business with them. So I am unable to check with them what the message really means – i.e. has someone used my name to set up an account, or is someone using their name to try and hoax me into supplying information or inadvertedly accepting a virus? I think the companies are behaving irresponsibly by not letting members of the public contact them to see what is going on.