A man in Caledonia, Wisconsin thought he was buying a car from a reputable website (autotrader.com) and paying for it using a reputable financial site (amazonpayments.com). Turned out that both sites were so-called ‘spoof sites’ – Identical copies of valid website, used to capture personal information such as credit card numbers/passwords or, as in this case, to make it appear that a bona-fide tramsaction was taking place.
The Porche Cayman he paid $30,000 for did not show up and by the time he realised, the cash had flown to Romania.
The lesson?
Never trust a link supplied to you from email or a website, especially if it is a financial transaction. Always go independantly to websites using your own bookmarks or typing the url in. it’s insanely easy to show the ‘correct’ link but to go to a different one when it is clicked. Financial Sites Always use ‘https’ instead of ‘httpd’. No Exceptions. Look at your online bank url when you are logged in some time.
Check the address bar of your browser. It’s trying to keep you safe.
Read More at the Caledonia Patch website (it’s the real one, trust me!)
3 responses to “Spoof websites bilk Caledonia man out of $30K”
http://www.scamdex.com/email-scam-database/K/html/1314833356.M463660P21238V
I have all sorts of proof that Ed is up to trying to defraud international banks with EXWAM. He is also Sending out fake company documents and investor information to banks (have proof positive copies from banks). I have the info but don’t know who to contact to see it followed through.
This is very interesting.
That really frustrates me. I get spam all the time trying to convince me to click through – but I never do.
Yet, just the mere fact that someone not only scammed someone – but took $30k from this person… that’s just awful. I feel for the person who lost the money.
Hopefully someone who got a suspicious email will read this post and think twice before clicking.
-Danielle