Oratory Commerce helps you out of Ebay and Paypal Scams

Oratory Commerce offers brilliant ideas on how to make your way out of Ebay and Paypal Scams. Ebay and Paypal used to be one of the most trusted sites so far but it looks like the scams have not spared them too. Ebay, as everyone knows is one of the safest places to buy and sell goods over the net and just like we know it, so do fraudsters, who are ready to do anything for money.

The most prevalent scams from Ebay are the kind which looks like an email sent from Ebay in every sense. Right from the logo and Ebay’s official letterhead, these mails look and sound so very convincing that very rarely do people realise they are fraudulent emails,Known by the name ‘phishing emails’; these mails often direct users to enter details at a fake site whichbears a striking resemblance to the legitimate oneIn the field of computer security, phishing is the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords, and credit cards details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication

.And in most cases, phishing is typically carried out by IMs or emails. The other arising scam issue is with Paypal. Though Paypal once used to be a secure online payment, today they are prone to the risks arising from common “tab-napping” methods. Tap napping has evolved as an intelligent phishing method which relies on clicking on a dodgy link. “Tap-napping” is basically a criminal activity of stealing an Internet user’s personal information by substituting a fake web page at an inactive tab during an Internet browsing session.

“The Tab-nappers wait for their chance and silently replace the original tab in which the user may have been working on, particularly if they feel relate to a bank account. The culprits replace the original tab with a fake one...” – the Statesmen

“You switch to another tab for a few seconds, and when you return tothe bank’s site it looks exactly like how you left it . So you happily enter your login details and before you know it, you have been tabnapped” – Digitalone

So now just think for yourselves and see if whilst using Ebay and Paypal, you have the habit of leaving it open, returning and taking for granted that the request for confirming details is authentic.If so what must be remembered when it comes to onlinebanking is that just like Paypals and other banks do notify the uses to confirm details, they also log off if the site remains inactive for a couple of minutes.

This exactly is what the fraudster looks forward to. And no one ever thinks this might be false and the sting of the reality never hits unless one checks his/her bank balance.

Oratory UK has designed a simple set of guidelines for those who are looking for ideas, ways and means to protect themselves from online scams.

The first thing any person should keep in mind is that requests for details may not be from who you think it’s from.

• Never open a window tab when dealing with personal data. Only use new windows
• Treat all request for details with suspicion as a some might be fake
• Check the address URL line at the top of the screen to confirm it has an expected address. If it is an important personal data make sure it starts with http://
• Report everything you suspect.

Hence keep your eyes open for phishing mails of any sort. An example would be like the following:

Gumtree Job Advert Scam

Internet Scams have now become a common phenomenon. They are just about everywhere. A very striking example would be that of Gumtree. Whether it is properties, dating, competition adverts, vehicles or vacancies, Gumtree, as per common man’s knowledge is a post-free advertising site! And so the recruitment consultant at Oratory UK was quite surprised when he came across an email recently asking for bank details for job posting, which sounded weird as Gumtree was a free ad posting site.

A follow-up on this along with some careful investigation brought to light the fact that there were other scams as well “Fantastic job offer in a wonderful new hotel, just send money over so we can send your flight tickets, you are guaranteed the job. Well, you are guaranteed something.”

Now to keep yourself updated take a sneak peek into the common Internet scams recently:

Mystery Shopper Scam

Beware fake cheques or being fooled into a western union scam.

Cheque Processing at Home Scam

Due to some spurious tax reason, we need someone in your country to take in cheques for us, keep 10% and send us the rest by w-u of course, fake cheque scam. Laundering stolen cheques are also another type of scam for cheques.

Work at Home Scams

All you have to do is to look up this in Google and you will find it flooded with the results. Most of them require money up front. There are a lot many examples “Make ££££ at home ask me how?”, craft work where they promise to buy something you have to purchase to assemble for them; sadly your work is never up to scratch et cetera.

So be smart enough to stand up against the scams in the tough internet world out there and to spot the same.

There are common scams that turn up all over the internet and unfortunately, even on Gumtree.

Oratory Commerce Liverpool prefers to take the safer route and employs only legitimate companies to post vacancy adverts, ones like the Media Circus. Happy news for both though, recently, on 10th November 2010, Media Circus had been declared as a Top 10 finalist in the Most Improved Recruiter 2010 category of Jobsite’s 2010 Recruit Rank Awards (www.recruitrank.co.uk)

The best thing for Media Circus about winning the accolade from RecruitRank Awards is that they are the only accolades in the industry where both the finalists as well as the winners are chosen by the feedback from candidates and not by a panel of industry judges like others – something that is recognised as the best practice and quality customer service in recruitment agencies.

A look into Internet scam issues:

Women have been found to be the most affected when it comes to online scams, according to a recent research. The research also brought out the fact that the age-group that was affected the most was women between the ages 25-34.

The research was carried out with the aim to identify the people who were able to spot as well as respond properly to seven online scam scenarios. Almost 2000 consumers were given tests which ranged from being able to identify sham Facebook pages to checking their response to sale of counterfeit goods online as well as competition scams.

It was found that women who were mostly in the age group of 25-34 were likely to fail in as much as 6 out of the 7 tests. The gender as well as the number also depended on the type of scams and the perfect example for that was that among those who fell for confidence tricks, 53% were men.

The research concluded revealing the fact that with internet scams on the rise anyone who uses the internet (no matter the frequency) could be affected. New tricks, such as pharming, work by redirecting the user's web browser, he said, so that when they type in a legitimate web address, they are redirected without knowing to a bogus site that appears genuine.

"People then happily type in their personal details and don't know they are being scammed before it's too late," it said.

Another risk that online users faced was the risks associated with people letting out too much of personal information on popular social networking sites like Facebook, even quoting this social networking site to be a goldmine for scammers.

The research results saw Oratory’s girls (and boys!) set about upping our security measures, Facebook has been privatized and Twitter is being carefully monitored. Speaking of which, come and say hi and add us as a friend on http://www.facebook.com/oratory.commerce .

BEWARE!! Scammers trawling cars sales sites!

Just last week a member of the Oratory Commerce team was trying to sell her car. Very quickly there was an email response stating that not only was this potential buyer interested, but they definitely wanted to buy the car ASAP and were willing to pay upfront before even viewing the vehicle and were so adamant they wanted it that they would not only match the asking price but actually pay more! Great! Or maybe – too good to be true?

Unfortunately, car sales sites are riddled with this kind of scam. But don’t worry, the scam is easily detectable. Firstly, you are likely to receive several emails all very similar. Here is how the scam rolls out:

• The email address will originate from webmail accounts, such as Yahoo, Hotmail or Gmail and be poorly written, or look as though they’re being sent in bulk with the seller’s car details crudely pasted in

• The scam artist will encourage sellers to use money transfer services such as Western Union

The scenarios vary, but usually take the following shape of events:

• The “buyer” arranges for a cheque to be sent from a third party to the seller for the asking price of the car – plus extra to cover the cost of shipping abroad

• The seller pays the cheque into their bank and is pressured by the fraudster into sending the “shipping fee” abroad immediately via a legitimate electronic money transfer company

• A few days later, the seller will be informed by the bank that the cheque was a fake

• The seller hears no more from the scam artist and has no way of getting the shipping fee back

So, beware – if you’re selling a car, be prepared to barter! A genuine buyer will be after a bargain.