the funk?

[floridaorange]

when I go to "www.mercuryserver.com"

I get this:





when I go to: "http://www.mercuryserver.com/forums/content.php" it's fine . Someone tried to hack MS and did a shit job it would appear .

but why?

[Kamal]

Re: the funk?

I'm aware of it, someone broke in pretty good. Trying to get to the bottom of it.

[floridaorange]

Re: the funk?

Hacking a music message board = instant terrible Karma

glad you're on top of it Cap'n

[KiwiTollway]

Re: the funk?

I'm aware of it, someone broke in pretty good. Trying to get to the bottom of it.

Kamal, Paypal got hit hard by hackers & they're out phishing (I got a very realistic phishing email yesterday... almost fell for until I checked on the sender's email, had a form that looks exactly like a real Paypal form).

So many "Warning your account's been threatened" stuff going around you can't tell who's who anymore. You have to double/triple check all calls and emails these days if anyone asks for info.

[subterFUSE]

Re: the funk?

So many "Warning your account's been threatened" stuff going around you can't tell who's who anymore. You have to double/triple check all calls and emails these days if anyone asks for info.

No kidding.
Just 2 days ago my phone rings and a woman asks for my wife. Says she is from Bank of America. I knew it was strange for the bank to call my wife on my phone, so I handed the phone to my wife and said quietly: "Be careful with this call."

The bank lady then said there was suspected fraudulent activity on the credit card and they needed to verify some charges. She then asked my wife for the last 4 of her social. My wife said: "I'm sorry, but you have called us and we cannot verify you are actually with the bank. We will not give that information over the phone under these circumstances. We will call the 800 number on our card and verify that way." Then hung up.

Called the bank, and they had no reported issues at all. So it was a total scam trying to get personal info. Very shady.
If it had been my mom answering the phone, should would have happily given the information trusting the person was from the bank.
Pretty scary. You really have to be on guard all the time now.

[floridaorange]

Re: the funk?

"Privacy" is not a word our kids will understand

[KiwiTollway]

Re: the funk?

No kidding.
Just 2 days ago my phone rings and a woman asks for my wife. Says she is from Bank of America. I knew it was strange for the bank to call my wife on my phone, so I handed the phone to my wife and said quietly: "Be careful with this call."

The bank lady then said there was suspected fraudulent activity on the credit card and they needed to verify some charges. She then asked my wife for the last 4 of her social. My wife said: "I'm sorry, but you have called us and we cannot verify you are actually with the bank. We will not give that information over the phone under these circumstances. We will call the 800 number on our card and verify that way." Then hung up.

Called the bank, and they had no reported issues at all. So it was a total scam trying to get personal info. Very shady.
If it had been my mom answering the phone, should would have happily given the information trusting the person was from the bank.
Pretty scary. You really have to be on guard all the time now.

subterFUSE, don't stop there.

Check with the major credit bureaus because my hubs got a similar call from Barclays Bank, saying she suspected fraudulent info in his name being put on an application and asking him to verify personal info because she was suspicious of an application she received. We were very suspicious and hung up, called Barclays back and got a voice recording stating there was a current phone scam of people claiming to be them warning people against fraud.

Checked with the BBB and Barclays had over 500 complaints, so we thought "scam, glad we didn't tell them anything." But just to be double sure, I called the president's office of that bank (got the # from the BBB) and she verified the caller's name as a real employee there.

Then we checked the credit bureau and sure enough 6 fraudulent inquiries had been made, 6 fraudulent accounts had been opened, a fraudulent home loan had just been approved by a different bank (we stopped it in time), charges had been run up in a 4-day period in NYC involving a driving service, an auto auction site, they even went as far as contacting the credit bureau themselves and changing our address and phone number (so that mail and calls would go somewhere bogus), opened a paypal account........in just a few days, much damage had been done.

The identity thieves had all my hubs personal info except exact phone number and mother's maiden name, which is what tipped off the bank employee (though she didn't/couldn't tell us that, we found out after getting copies of the online applications she had received). We immediately put a freeze with all 3 credit bureaus and then started getting all kinds of mail from companies we never sought credit from. Had to file an identity theft police report, etc. call and close all the fraud accounts, it took about a month to clean it all up.

Like you, we thought it was so strange for a bank we never heard of to call my hub's cell and act like they were phishing for info ("I can't tell you the numbers, but if you say a few of them, I can verify" she said, and we did not give her anything), and even with the voice recording warning of a scam from that same bank and multiple online message boards saying it was a scam, it was a real warning that his credit identity had been compromised. That bank called him just in time before too much damage had been done. She called us on the 17th, but the fraud had begun on the 14th of that month. We put freezes in place by the 18th.

While you can't trust any bank that calls you out of the blue, you can check with your credit bureau to make sure no one is using your identity. (You have to check the 3 major ones, different fraud accounts turned up on different bureaus.) And if they get it, you can reverse it all, file affidavits of fraudulent charges, and get the inquiries off your credit history. But you have to catch them quickly. They do it all online and they get as far as they can before being noticed, which is sometimes just a week with much damage done.

[subterFUSE]

Re: the funk?

We have Lifelock, so that means our credit is always on "fraud alert" with the reporting agencies. That's pretty much all Lifelock actually does. They send fraud alerts to the 3 agencies every 90 days. You could honestly accomplish this yourself for free by calling the agencies every 90 days. When you consider that, the Lifelock service is certainly overpriced.... but I really like the convenience it provides.

Every time there is an inquiry I get an email with an alert. It really works well.

[KiwiTollway]

Re: the funk?

^^ cool! Glad you got yourself covered.

[Kamal]

Re: the funk?

We have Lifelock, so that means our credit is always on "fraud alert" with the reporting agencies. That's pretty much all Lifelock actually does. They send fraud alerts to the 3 agencies every 90 days. You could honestly accomplish this yourself for free by calling the agencies every 90 days. When you consider that, the Lifelock service is certainly overpriced.... but I really like the convenience it provides.

Every time there is an inquiry I get an email with an alert. It really works well.

You can register for Credit Karma for free, install the app on your phone and you can see credit alerts in real time. I've been doing it for the last year. Granted it is only from 1 of the credit bureau's but something's better than nothing.

[floridaorange]

Re: the funk?

^They were a client of mine, we like CK - that is good to know though - thanks Kam