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Attention!
By: Enrico Cacciatore,
iStarmedia.net
Here's a new scam. Actually, it is an old
scam, with a new twist.
Authorize.net is one of the foremost credit card processor of online
transactions. To be more exact, they are a gateway - an intermediary system
between the bank, the customer (seller of goods and services over the
internet) and the user - you, the person who takes out his/her credit card
and enter all those little digits that amount to Billions of Dollars or
transactions each year.
I received this email from "antifraud@authorize.net"
asking us to provide them with credit card information, otherwise "our"
credit card would no longer be valid.
Our credit card??? which one??? and why to authorize.net???
Did I do business with them??? Uhm, let's see, what did I buy last on the
internet? And, the editor email address???
If we had been duped like many do every day, we would have send the
information and rest assured that our credit card would now be working. Wow,
that was a close one. Almost lost the use of my credit card.
On the surface, it all looks legit. Once you post your information and click
submit, you are directed to the authorize.net website. All above board. No
one is the wiser.
On closer inspection, and given my brilliant knowledge of the internet,
html, cgi-bin coding, and all that good stuff, I found that the email was
being passed through the domain foxi.ru - a russian domain.
What I suspect these people are doing is taking your credit card and
personal information from you. They probably aren't breaking any laws, since
you decided to type in the information and sent it to them.
However, the results of giving our your credit card and personal information
to these kind of sites can be disastrous to your and credit rating. Trying
to convince your credit card company that you did not make the transactions
on your statement is a nightmare, but more important, cleaning your credit
history will be next to impossible.
Be careful and aware of whom you are sending information to and why. Reputed
companies like Authorize.net and Paypal will never ask you for you credit
card information by email.
Don't be a victim of this type of
scam. Make sure you know who is asking for your credit card and personal
information, and the most important rule, when in doubt don't.
Authorize.net is
aware of this situation and has posted the following message on it's
website:
Email Requesting
Confidential Information Authorize.Net is aware of an email campaign,
initiated by a third party unrelated to Authorize.Net, that is designed to
elicit confidential, personal, and financial account information from the
email recipient. Such emails have originated from addresses such as
"antifraud@authorizations.net," "ansofraud@authorize.net" or some other
variation of the Authorize.Net name.
The email messages claim that, due to a global technical failure, the
recipient should provide the sender with full credit card information in
order to avoid having the credit card "frozen in 10 days." THESE EMAILS
AND ANY WEB SITE ASSOCIATED WITH THESE EMAILS ARE IN NO WAY ASSOCIATED WITH
AUTHORIZE.NET.
As a general confidentiality practice, Authorize.Net does not solicit your
confidential personal and financial account information via email; and does
not solicit such information from persons, merchants or other businesses
that are not clients of, partnered with, or otherwise associated with
Authorize.Net. Authorize.Net strongly recommends that you NOT share any
personal and confidential information with any business or person you do not
know or did not first contact. If you have any questions, please contact
abuse@authorize.net.
X-Box Contest Email
Authorize.Net is aware of a separate email campaign, initiated by a third
party informing the recipient that they have won a Microsoft X-Box in a
promotional competition. The email directs the recipient to a Web site that
requires them to enter their debit card information. Authorize.Net believes
that the purported drawing for a free X-Box is an Internet scam designed to
steal debit card numbers with their associated PINs. SUCH EMAIL AND WEB SITE
ARE IN NO WAY ASSOCIATED WITH AUTHORIZE.NET AND AUTHORIZE.NET DOES NOT
COLLECT, PROCESS OR OTHERWISE RECEIVE ANY INFORMATION THAT IS SUBMITTED VIA
SUCH WEB SITE.
As a general confidentiality practice, Authorize.Net does not solicit your
confidential personal and financial account information via email; and does
not solicit such information from persons, merchants or other businesses
that are not clients of, partnered with, or otherwise associated with
Authorize.Net. Authorize.Net strongly recommends that you NOT share any
personal and confidential information with any business or person you do not
know or did not first contact. If you have any questions, please contact
abuse@authorize.net.
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| Copy of the email received |
Attention! In our global system of
monitoring there was a technical failure.
In avoidance of frauds with your credit card enter the full data for
authorization, otherwise your credit card will be frozen during 10
day.
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