POS Phishing F'k Got Me...

[Shytheed Dumas]

So it looks like I might fallen for way-too-good phishing attempt and got taken for $1,100 on Friday. I am always really careful and warn my family about the dangers, but let your gaurd down for one minute and they are just waiting to pounce.

Some pimply-assed shit, probably living in his parent's basement, spent every dime on character upgrades for some stupid game - what a waste. Good news was that I was able to shut the account down before all but $200 of it hit, but that only means I need to start protecting my credit bureau scores. Today was a total waste of time with trips to the bank to close accounts, filling out a police report, checking all of my other accounts and changing passwords. And I just spent all evening doing a complete OS reinstall on my computer to make sure there's no spyware or viruses, then updated my anti-virus and set up a double firewall. I figure I've got about 8 more weeks of followup to make sure this thing is done, and hopefully I won't end up getting stuck with any of it. I'm usually pretty peaceful, but right now I'd like to find out the fucker got mowed down crossing the street this weekend. I know there's not much chance of it, but I hope he gets found in the investigation. NEVER let your guard down when it comes to $ and the internet!

Sorry for the angry post, but a little venting seemed like good medicine.

 

[Joel W.]

Please explain how? I don't get it??

 

[Shytheed Dumas]

Hard to say, but most likely when I completed a purchase on ebay, I got a false email confirmation of the purchase from the reprobate. Instead of going to paypal by entering the URL myself, I think I might have linked from the phishing email confirmation which would've brought me to a paypal look-alike screen. Then, of course, I would've entered my account name and password, and that's all the loser needs to complete the ebay transaction for real so that I'm not suspicious and then start buying like crazy a couple of weeks later. In this case, 13 purchases in less than 20 minutes.

It could have been another similar phishing attempt I fell for, spyware or even somebody hacking my apparently poorly defended computer. The cops told me sometimes they will sit and try passwords for hours. All I can say is never log onto a payment screen from any links, change your passwords once in a while, and make sure your Windows updates and virus protection are current. Those are some of the holes they are looking for.

 

[Joel W.]

Ohh ok, I am tracking now, Yes, I get those emails all the time saying that my ebay account will be closed unless I login and update my credit card info..But when you click the link it does not goto ebay, but a lookalike page..

It is a total scam. Sorry you got robbed. Did you called your bank to see if they can reverse the charges if you used a credit card to fund paypal? Not sure on this though..

Edit: As a seller on ebay, several times i had someone pay for an item with paypal, No problems, Then few weeks later i get notification that it was a fraudulent transaction and paypal took the money out of my account without even asking me.. You may have a chance..

 

[Shytheed Dumas]

Oh yeah, I've talked to everybody - banks, paypal, cops, equifax. The tricky thing about this one is that it was sent after I completed an auction, so I didn't think twice about using the link. I actually was lucky enough to have $870 in charges reversed because I beat the transactions to the bank and closed the account. I am doing everything I can to make sure I don't eat it. I even notified the sellers (none from ebay, btw), and they have been really supportive even though they had the charges reversed. We'll see how it goes.

 

[drunk_medic]

Ouch. Sorry to hear this happened. As soon as I saw this thread posted, I thought "That guy did something stupid and is going to get boned", but you seem to know what's going on, and I think you took the proper steps to ensure that this doesn't come back. Now, make sure that you closely monitor your credit; there is no telling what information someone could have gotten if they had access to your EBay or Paypal accounts. The profile pages might not tell everything about you, of course, but you never know what these people are capable of with the little information that they can obtain.

 

[Shytheed Dumas]

That's why I posted the thread - as a warning for anybody who thinks they are careful and know how to manage their information. This just showed how easy it is to slip up and how much crap you have to go through once you do.

 

[Shytheed Dumas]

BTW, the idiot bought upgrades for "World of Warcraft", and his character name is "Izisa". I don't know a thing about the game, but there were references to Icecrown Alliance.

If anybody plays this game and sees his character, feel free to fuck with him. Any chance of coming across a player like that, and is there any way to get information from him?

EDIT: I just found the customer support links and a phone number at the World of Warcraft website. They will be hearing from me and I will be giving them the police report number. Hopefully it goes somewhere.

 

[drunk_medic]

Icecrown is the game server. Izisa is the character name, and he is from the Alliance faction. Another reason to hate the Alliance.

FOR THE HORDE!

 

[drunk_medic]

You know, I was thinking about this. Was he buying gold? That is what it sounds like. There are a few things that you might be able to do here, to ensure maximum revenge:
Okay, so far we know that someone used your money to buy something for his Alliance character, named Izisa, on the Icecrown server. What we don't know is where he is, and what he is doing with it.
Chances are that he's done this before, and that he is not in this country, and you will not find his exact location. So, how are you going to get your revenge?
Well, buying gold/items is against the EULA for World of Warcraft, for one. This can result in revocation of that account. What sucks is, Izisa might be:
1) A character on a hacked account - another victim, just like you.
2) A fake account, made with someone else's credit information - again, another victim.
Izisa is not from a "trial account" unless the gold/items were simply traded. I was a trial user, and I was quite frustrated that I could not send mail to people, and I could not read mail in my box even though there was a little envelope displayed on-screen - until I upgraded to a full account.
So, what are you going to do?
See if Blizzard [the company who made the game/hosts the WoW servers] can track their in-game mail system. Knowing the character name, server name and faction helps even more. Why? Because characters can only send mail to people on their same server. What's more, they can only send mail to members of their own faction. Now you know that if they can trace large amounts of gold or high-gold items [Bind-On-Equip Epic items] being sent from that character Izisa to another character, it's a bit suspicious, no? Especially if Izisa is deleted afterwards.
One more thing - if this person knows what they are doing, they may have more than one computer/account, and they may log in with two accounts at once. That is where Izisa has received a ridiculous sum of gold in his mailbox, and does an in-game face to face trade from Izisa to their other Alliance character on that server. He will open a trade window and give nothing for all of that gold [IE giving things for nothing. Sometimes I give useful items which I do not need to guild/party members if it will help]. If Blizzard cannot trace items/money coming from the mail system, they may have done it through trade this way. See if they can trace trades between that character to another.

This just made me think: "Gold laundering". Pretty ridiculous, but this just prompted me to look at the exchange rate between gold and the dollar. Amazing, if you think about it just being digital.

 

[Shytheed Dumas]

Unbelievable. I CANNOT believe such stupid shit could be worth jail time, but if that's what gets you off...

Thanks for the input. I sent Blizzard an email earlier today and have been looking for a little time to call. I will bring up your thoughts and see what they can do.

 

[drunk_medic]

Tuesdays, their call volume might be high. Every Tuesday morning-afternoon is "patch day" where they do their server maintenance, fixes, etc. With a new patch sometimes comes new problems, all of which people will want to call and complain about.
I'm just saying, if you can't get through, don't give up and rely on e-mail to get your point across. You have to keep on top of people to make them do their job sometimes.

 

[Shytheed Dumas]

So this is the response from Blizzard:

"Hello Kurt,

If the police department would like more information regarding these purchases
then they will need to contact us directly and request the information with the
proper legal documents.

Sincerely,

Laura

Billing and Account Services
Blizzard Entertainment
laural.support@blizzard.com
www.blizzard.com/support"


So they have no interest in people committing felonies on their site???? WTF???? I asked them this and reminded them of the many site rules a peson like this would be walking all over. I hate people like this. I let "Laura" know that I would be calling until I reach a live human and that a manager needs to be ready to talk with me. Apparently I will be taking Blizzard on as well. They can ask DR Horton, "America's Builder" what it's like to defraud me - www.drhortonvictim.com. Visit if you like.

 

[Joel W.]

You have to understand she can't just give out her customers info to just anyone who emails. The police will need a search warrant to access their information. Otherwise she could get sued if she did. I know it is BS but the cops have big boxes of search warrants and I bet they would not mind filling one out for her, so they can catch this punk.. :dunno:

Edit: The warrant will also ensure the information aquired from the search, does not get thrown out of court.

 

[Shytheed Dumas]

Point taken, Joel. My wife said pretty much the same thing, and I've had a night's sleep to cool off. This whole thing has really pissed me off, though. I was only letting Blizzard know something happened and was trying to ask for their cooperation. I was expecting at least some acknowledgement of interest in something illegal involving their business.

 

[figgie]

Well as you see she is accounting,

what you really need is Blizzard Human resources. They know all the legal stuff about personal information but the best move is talk to a lawyer or police and get them to start looking at the information you have gathered. Trust me they (Law Enforcements) have leads or all the information in front of them to do a Warrant. Makes thier day

 

[Fuzz420]

Ill be happy to upload kaspersky anit-virus, and firewall if you need them. Just lmk

 

[Shytheed Dumas]

Ill be happy to upload kaspersky anit-virus, and firewall if you need them. Just lmk

Thanks Fuzz, but after I started working on my computer, I had my IT manager from work come over and give me a complete overhaul on my protection. I'm feeling as safe as I can for now.

BTW, we still need to have a few of us Louisville guys meet for a beer after work one of these days...

 

[Fuzz420]

Thanks Fuzz, but after I started working on my computer, I had my IT manager from work come over and give me a complete overhaul on my protection. I'm feeling as safe as I can for now.

BTW, we still need to have a few of us Louisville guys meet for a beer after work one of these days...

Ive been out of class for almost a month now, im ready whenever a couple of us can get time and a date together

 

[Shytheed Dumas]

Maybe next week weds or the week after that? Midweek (tues - thurs) seem to work best for me. Probably need throw a thread up on the regional board for something quick and informal meet somewhere central like Buckheads on the IN side or at the Kingfish by the watertower. Or wherever...