“You are paying for 1 item from saintlouisguitar” Email

By Kristopher Dukes | June 27, 2008 

Check out one of the latest PayPal phishing emails: the “You are paying for 1 item from saintlouisguitar” Email. This time your account hasn’t closed and you don’t need to immediately —> CLICK HERE <--- to reactivate it. This PayPal phishing email is a little more subtle: the damn scammers pretend that your account has been used to buy an ugly watch you never wanted.

If you choose to click the link and dispute the charge, you'll likely be asked to log into your PayPal account. Then the damn phishers capture your login info, steal your money, and maybe your identity.

Bastards.

If you clicked the link in the “You are paying for 1 item from saintlouisguitar” Email, alert PayPal and any of your PayPal-connected bank accounts immediately.

“You are paying for 1 item from saintlouisguitar” Email in full, to follow.

“You are paying for 1 item from saintlouisguitar” Email Is Ugly

“You are paying for 1 item from saintlouisguitar” Email

“You are paying for 1 item from saintlouisguitar” Email Is Dumb

From: aw-confirm@ebay.com
Subject: You are paying for 1 item from saintlouisguitar.
Date: June 25, 2008 7:56:27 AM PDT

This email confirms that you have paid OMEGAMOVE (sales@omegamove.com) $395.85 USD using PayPal.

This credit card transaction will appear on your bill as “PAYPAL OMEGAMOVE”.

PayPal Shopping Cart Contents
Item Name: Omega Constellation Men Watch - mint
Quantity: 1
Total: $380.85 USD

Cart Subtotal: $380.85 USD
Sales Tax: $15.00 USD
Cart Total: $395.85 USD

Shipping Information
Shipping Info: James Dickson
184 Hadley Dr.
Chicago, IL 60614
United States

Address Status: Unconfirmed?

If you haven’t authorized this charge, click the link below to cancel the payment and get a full refund.

Dispute Transaction

“You are paying for 1 item from saintlouisguitar” Email Might Be a Phishing Email

WTF is a Phishing Email?

Phishing emails are fake emails sent by people trying to steal your financial information or identity. Phishing is just what it sounds like: only instead of someone fishing for fish, phishers are going after human catches.

Some phishing emails are disguised as charities looking for a donation after a big natural disaster, other phishing emails will look like an e-card you need to retrieve, but most phishing emails pretend to be from a big bank concerned about your account.

Now, let’s talk about…

Why Phishing Emails Suck

Phishing emails, like “You are paying for 1 item from saintlouisguitar” Email, generally look authentic, but there are a few ways to realize they’re faker than a chest on a Playboy bunny.

  • Scare tactics: Most phishing emails will tell you that your financial account has been closed and you need to take immediate action to restore it. If you have reason to think an email like this is real, type your bank’s website address into your browser. Never click any of the links an email like this.
  • Fake hyperlinks: Phishing emails will show you a hyperlinked URL that, if you click it, sends you to a completely different website. It’s at this scam website–which may look pretty real except for the revealed URL–that phishers usually try to capture your login information.
  • Domain name forgery: Once you click this link and get taken to the phishing website, sometimes even then you can’t see the real URL of the site–it may be disguised with javascript to read like a trusted domain (for example, the phishers might use code to make your browser display www.trustedbank.co.uk, when you’re really visiting www.damnscam.co.uk/trustedbank-phishing.htm).
  • Images instead of text: Phishing emails sometimes use a graphic of text instead of actual words, so that they can bypass your spam detectors. Remember that pretty V1AGARA or C1ALIS picture you got recently?
  • Undisclosed recipients: The better phishing emails don’t make this mistake, but a lot of times phishing emails will spam a ton of people at once and leave the “To:” section reading “undisclosed recipients”–even though the email is supposed to address your account in particular.

Did “You are paying for 1 item from saintlouisguitar” Email use these moves to try to scam you?