Ted Richardson at Fraud, Phishing and Financial Misdeeds had a great post last week on "The Art of Defeating a PayPal Scammer – Part II" It is a good read, and Ted’s tips are right on.
PayPal provides users a number of educational resources including "How to Spot a Spoof". Also, eBay’s Senior Vice President of Trust & Safety, Rob Chestnut, has written an eCommerce Safety Guide that I have found interesting as well. You can listen to Rob Chestnut in this BusinessWeek interview, "Fighting Fraud on eBay".
In spite of all the work Rob Chestnut has done over the last few years to combat eBay frauds, emails that appear to come from eBay and PayPal continue to one of the biggest risks to online surfers in 2006. I personally receive a half dozen fake eBay or PayPal emails a week, and I am not alone.
According to The Arbor Networks Security Blog, eBay and PayPal were the #2 and #3 targets of phishing attacks in the first quarter of 2006. I have seen other stats that are less severe, but obviously, eBay and PayPal phishing emails are a major risk to consumers.
Obviously, the point here is to be careful when surfing online and reading your email. I will provide you with my specific tips for avoiding phishing scams later this week.
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