Comments on: Skype Phishing Scam

By: Lee

Lee — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 02:45:23 +0000

Hi! I received the same email from skype. It was too late for me to realise that it is not true because I already send my personal infos to them. Am I gonna be in big trouble.

By: Arthi

Arthi — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 18:32:57 +0000

Skype (paid version) is completely unsecured and there customer service is non-existent. I would even call Skype SCAM! Yes I’ve paid them $10 and never got the money credited to the account. I had to use non-receipt Paypal claim to recover my funds, and Skype even did not bother to respond.

Advice: if you have improper funds handling problem with Skype paid via PayPal then use NON-RECEIPT claim as other type of claim will be automatically denied by PayPal.

I use and will continue to use there free calls service BUT I never ever will pay them even 1 penny!

There are many reliable and trustworthy VOIP providers that will not just take your money for nothing…

By: agustin

agustin — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 17:42:06 +0000

I have just received this e-mail which is obviously a scam as it is asking for all my personal info and bank account. I just thought I should post it somewhere and hope no one falls for such a stupid trap. Unfortunatelly, I have come to discover that some people DO FALL for such.

Skype promo NEVER arrives like this. It always has the HTML graphics and to contact them they never ask you to call them PERIOD. Besides the contact e-mail, as you can see at the end is :

skypepromo2008@yahoo.com.hk

DEFINITELY NOT SKYPE! This is a free account that a hobo can get just logging in on the internet!

KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN FOR THESE FREAKS.

Skype Awards Promo 2008
From The Desk Of The Promotions Manager
International Promotions/Skype Award Center
124 Stockport Road, Longsight,
Manchester M60 2DB – United Kingdom
Please visit our website http://www.priz...ification.co.uk
for more information on our lottery program.

Reference Number: 1037231LL

This is to inform you that you have won a prize money of Five Hundred Thousand
Pounds(Ј500,000,00.) for the month of October, 2008 Prize promotion which is
organized by Skype AWARDS. The Skype collects all the email addresses of the
people that are active online,among the millions that subscribed to various
websites. Six people are selected monthly to benefit from this promotion and you
are one of the Selected Winners.

PAYMENT OF PRIZE AND CLAIM
Winners shall choose from one of the payment option stated below:

A] Bank Wire Transfer
For this option, winners must provide the below stated information:
(1) Bank Full Name:
(2) Bank Full Address (including State and Country)
(3) Bank Telephone Number
(4) Bank Account Number
(5) Name of Owner of Account
(6) Swift Code
(7) Initial Charge of Transfer (I.C.O.T) – Ј1,650 (Must be paid before
transfer of funds)

B] International Certified Cheque

For this option, winners must provide the below stated information:
(1) Your Full Name
(2) Your Complete Mailing Address
(3) A Scanned Copy of your I.D clearly showing your face. (Note that this I.D
will be required to claim your parcel when it arrives your apartment).
(4) Insurance Fee & Shipment charge of Ј1000 (Must be paid before
consignment dispatch)

All funds must be claimed no later than 14 days from date of Draw Notification.
Any prize not claimed within this period will be forfeited.Stated below are your
identification numbers:

Below you will find a Processing Form, requesting your required Particulars.
Please provide all requested information to help us processs your claim in good
time.

Skype ONLINE PROCESSING FORM

REFERENCE NUMBER:____________________________
FULL NAMES:__________________________________
ADDRESS:
_________________________________________________CITY:_________________________
STATE:__________________________________
ZIP: _____________________
PHONE:/FAX__________________________________
COUNTRY_______________________________
SEX:_______________MALE
AGE:__________________
MARITAL STATUS: ________________
OCCUPATION: ________________________
E-MAIL ADDRESS: _______________________
DEPENDING ON PAYMENT OPTION YOU CHOOSE,YOU WILL BE TOLD HOW TO MAKE THE NEEDED CHARGES AVAILABLE.
NOTE THAT IF YOU ARE NOT COMING TO OUR OFFICE IN PERSON,NO DEDUCTIONS WHATSOEVER CAN BE MADE FROM YOUR WINNINGS.

Forms Should be returned to your claim agent with details below

Send all Correspondence to Fudiciary Agent Roy Smith
Email:skypepromo2008@yahoo.com.hk
TEL:+447035931957
Call him as soon as you receive this notification

CONGRATULATIONS ONCE AGAIN!!!
Yours in service
Patricia Elsworth
(Lottery Coordinator)

By: Easy Money

Easy Money — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 09:24:56 +0000

Easy Money …

Easy Money…

By: Johnnie

Johnnie — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 14:11:38 +0000

There is a report here about someone who hacked into another’s website and launched a phishing Scam from that hacked server and they were from Syria!

http://qurl.co.uk/hetx

By: peter

peter — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 05:00:49 +0000

why is techcrunch covering this while ignoring some well deserved startups? Not to mention this is nothing unusual if you use email at all.

By: Mike Puchol

Mike Puchol — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 16:10:00 +0000

I just wrote about this, but it seems either trackbacks don’t work here, or my blog is screwed (more likely I guess)

http://tech.am/...-your-contacts/

By: Talk Technology

Talk Technology — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 10:29:39 +0000

Well the only way out is by logining in your skype account and check if there is any notice. I keep getting loads and loads of messages like this for Paypal.. mostly in my spam box.. (not even indox)

By: laurent

laurent — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 08:07:26 +0000

I would say it is to get access to the paypal account. Paypal phishing are too common these days not to be picked up by decent antispam servers/applications, so i believe this is a way to circumvent this matter. Phisher are getting smarter… .That’s all.
An other thing, but this has to be checked. Since you can now install widgets on skype, maybe those guys developped one (something that records your typing, a spyware, a mail relay etc.. etc..) and they’ve just found a way to propagate their widget.

By: Saagar

Saagar — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 07:09:09 +0000

The difference between a personal post and a ‘public’ post is the same as the difference between an advice and a statement Good luck Duncan

By: MarkB

MarkB — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 06:46:34 +0000

Skype information would be useful if the user has a payment agreement setup with PayPal (so they just add credit, Skype does their thing, and the user never has to go through the steps on the PayPal site). Think that’s the reason?

By: Avinash

Avinash — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 05:06:25 +0000

Thanks for the tip. Better watch out for these phishing emails.

By: Steve Ballmer

Steve Ballmer — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 03:22:24 +0000

Just use a phone people! You cheapskates unnerve me!

http://fakestev...er.blogspot.com

By: Josh

Josh — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 00:11:58 +0000

Seriously, why the hell is this crap on Techcrunch? Duncan, your signal to noise ratio is getting worse and worse these days.

By: JT

JT — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 21:17:03 +0000

Should add the url to phishtank.com

By: James Thomas

James Thomas — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 20:44:44 +0000

Duncan Riley outsmarts a phishing email. Story at 11.

By: Mustafa

Mustafa — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 18:17:25 +0000

I dont mind Skype at all, I like its call quality and the rates for calling countries. I had a major issue with Skype last week. I had about $10 credit, logged in one day and saw it was $1.50, I was like dayyum…check my call history in Skype (nothing there). I then logged in my account and exported a .csv file and there I saw about a hundred calls made.

I have a very strong password (8 characters, numbers, letters and characters). I ran the installed anti-malware software I have for viruses, trojans, keyloggers, or (serious) spyware, nothing. I e-mailed Skype and I am still waiting for a reply. Its pretty crazy.

By: Generic_Guy

Generic_Guy — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 16:39:06 +0000

I dropped Skype once I found MagicJack, too many security issues (I too suspect an inside job). Just read Skype’s forums and you’ll see the stolen passoword and hacked account thing is not uncommon.

By: Faisal

Faisal — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 15:49:49 +0000

Looks this pishing site has troubles in the past.

From looking to the thumbinal at whois.sc , you can see it was hacked by Arabic people recently and they posted message in Arabic language on the home page of the site.

By: Fabian Schonholz

Fabian Schonholz — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 15:18:12 +0000

These things are pretty sophisticated. The other day I got pretending to be from the Camber of Commerce regarding some lady suing me as an executive for the company I worked for. The info was so accurate. I freaked and click on the link … yes … dumb of me. But when I saw a .exe I reacted and canceled the download.

I felt so bad … I mean … I am always so hyper aware and always looking out and that one got me. So imagine what happened with execs that are not technology oriented. Or if my assistant had actually open the email before I did.

Scary stuff

By: Jimmy

Jimmy — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 14:53:47 +0000

Prank Calls (#7) and Duncan: See #3. If you have someone’s user name and password, there’s a great chance you can get into a bunch of other accounts. Most people use the same password for Skype and other sites, like amazon. That’s why amazon makes you re-enter your credit card number all the time — counter-measure to the phishers.

If you think about it, this is genius from a phisher’s perspective. Most people will have their guard down because “it’s just Skype. What can someone do with my Skype account?” Their yields from Paypal phishing have probably dropped a ton, and this Skype technique will probably be pretty effective for a while.

Sucks for everyone else.

By: bob cobb

bob cobb — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 14:42:03 +0000

I’m surprised that the cec-icmc.org didn’t lead to a crunchbase page

By: John

John — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 13:55:47 +0000

I’ve gotten previous emails from “PayPal” that used the exact same language as this “Skype” email. I think they’re the same people.

By: Angela L. Swanson

Angela L. Swanson — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 13:21:59 +0000

Skype sucks big Time. They never got me started because of some cow who said I wasn’t better than her. Plus I blogged em several times anyway cause iam like that and told pplz who complained anyway cause they said it sucks too. So Skpye sucks cow utters for a living big time.

By: DeMoNeye

DeMoNeye — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 12:55:03 +0000

I work in an IT department in the UK – with about 150 people in the company. We now receive in excess of 5,000 spam emails a day! We have various spam blocking software in place (MailMarshall), but we’ve still got to check approximately 1,000 emails a day by hand to check for validity.

Spam has got to be stopped or email will end being a tool of the past, because it will just become unusable.