Tired being scammed?

One should really be careful when doing transactions online, mainly buying things. I could still remember around 2 years ago, someone used my card and do an un-authorizated transaction. And the technique that the scammer used is “Phishing”. For your information, Phishing is a type of deception designed to steal your valuable personal data, such as credit card numbers, passwords, account data etc. Actually, that was quite humorous, because i am being scammed, i grow an interest in internet security which makes me pay more attention in class.

In fact, i didn’t know that was called Phishing until that module was taught in my school. So this is how it goes. I bought a reseller hosting package from a person(scammer) through his website, which requires me to enter my card details in a html form. Well, you might find thats funny, but inexperienced as i was, i stupidly filled up that. And the next day on, when i checked my bank balance, wow, around $400 was spent in some items(software licenses). Actually, that scammer was still a noobie. Normally, when we buy things using debit or credit card, a transaction code will comes with the transation. With that transaction code, you could easily find the company where that item was purchased. So, i called up that company, tell them the details, give evidence and proof and tell them it’s an unauthorized transaction and after a few days, they refunded me through my card. The first thing that i do when i found out about my card was being used for unauthorized transaction is to call up my bank and cancelled the card. This step is damn important. If you suspect your card is being used by others, always cancelled it. This is the first thing to do!!!

How they get my card details

First, they make you fill up your card details in their so called “company” website. After you fill up that form, the form values will be inserted into their database. And thats how they get all the card number, expiry date etc. And they will then redirect you to the payment page, where they give you a false impression that you actually paid for that product and asked to wait for a few days for processing. During this few days, they will immediately use your card details on other websites and make unauthorized transactions.

So the thing is that,

1) When you buy things online, always contact that person in terms of email or msn. Saved up all the chat logs, emails as evidence of purchase. If It’s possible, make them sign a contract. Check their details, example, nickname, email in google. Make sure they have a clean record.

2) DO NOT PAY THROUGH THEIR WEBSITE USING CARDS. Those scammers will try to make their website looks damn professional with ssl which make it seems secured. Instead, Use paypal. It’s secured and there’s a chargeback. If you are being scammed, issued a chargeback with paypal and they will help you to get your funds back, provided you have all proof and evidence.

3) Don’t use a debit card online, use credit card. This tip is given by one of my teachers. Using debit card online, is relatively stupid, because it deducts money directly from your bank. However, i do not have a credit card, and up to now, i am still using debit card online.

4) If you do online transaction reguarly, make sure you log in and check your bank statement everyday.

5) This is important. Make sure your pc is clean. Not infected with virus or trojan horse. Trojan horse is very very dangerous because they are used by blackhat hackers to steal details like password. Imagine your paypal password being stealed.

6) When you received emails from paypal or egold or what asking you to update your details. DO NOT EVER click on links in the email. Because, that may be the email that are sent from scammers. Even if the email looks like support@paypal.com, dont ever click on links in it. This is called dns poisioning, where they make their email looks like its really sent from paypal. Instead, forward that email to paypal.

These are some of the things that i experienced and learned. Hope it helps.

Tagged as: dns poisioning, phishing, scammed, scammers, Tired being scammed?