Friday, March 18, 2005

The most brazen scam I've seen yet

Just got this spammail:
Dear Paypal customer,
 
As part of our security measures, we regularly screen activity in the
PayPal system. We recently noticed the following issue on your account:
A recent review of your account determined that we require some
additional information from you in order to provide you with secure service.
 
Case ID Number: PP-069-680-616
 
For your protection, we have limited access to your account until
additional security measures can be completed. We apologize for any
inconvenience this may cause.
 
To restore your account access please send a fax to (347) 287-6958 with
following information:
 
1. Valid Photo ID.
2. First Name and Last Name from your credit card.
3. The scanned copy front and back of your credit card.
4. Credit Card Number.
5. Expiration Date.
6. Cid/Cvv2 (Last 3 digits located on the back of your credit card)
7. PIN (Your 4 digit number used in ATM transactions)

 
We appreciate your understanding as we work to ensure account safety.
 
In accordance with PayPal's User Agreement, your account access will
remain limited until the issue has been resolved. Unfortunately, if
access to your account remains limited for an extended period of time,
it may result in further limitations or eventual account closure.
We encourage you send a fax to (347) 287-6958 as soon as possible to
help avoid this.
 
To review your account and some or all of the information that PayPal
used to make its decision to limit your account access, please visit the
Resolution Center. If, after reviewing your account information, you
seek further clarification regarding your account access, please contact
PayPal by visiting the Help Center and clicking "Contact Us".
We thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. Please
understand that this is a security measure intended to help protect you
and your account. We apologize for any inconvenience.
 
Sincerely,
PayPal Account Review Department
 
PayPal Email ID PP522
We all get fraudulent emails like this, but this one really takes the cake. Note that the "valid photo ID" will contain either a driver's license number or a SSN and maybe both.The worst part is that come people invariably will fall for it. Then they will learn what "identity theft" is, the hard way, sadly.

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