Pay Pal users - Be Careful

[Blilious]

Just read this article.

seems important enough to post here.

http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1107-825076.html

 

[Big D1]

Thanks man, it was a good read and very informative. I will heed the advice. Big D1

 

[Keith Montgomery]

That was something I had no idea about> Thanks for the heads up.

 

[dewingrm]

Great article, A big "heads up" for those who use PayPal. Thanks.

 

[s002cjs]

Crud! I wish I'd read this last night before sending out a chunk to a link from an e-mail...
_

 

[Safety Guy]

Could this technique be used on other internet payment links, like 1SKS or Discount Knives, J.Crew, WalMart, etc? Or are their secured links within their own systems and thus fairly immune?

Karl

 

[Cougar Allen]

This is one time I'm going to copy a thread to TGB&U instead of moving it -- that way it'll stay on the first page in the General Blade Discussion Forum longer.

 

[azwilly]

Great info. As they say "forewarned is forarmed"

 

[Burke]

Good to know; thanks for the heads up.

 

[PsychRN]

I read an earlier article and have since withdrawn all funds from my paypal account.

 

[deputy tom]

Thanks Blilious for the info.Now I'm thinking of closing My Pay-Pal account.tom.

 

[RyanMalpiede]

...

 

[Blilious]

Did some research -

Safety Guy asked if this can be a problem on other sites:

The answer is yes - but is also easily to avoid.

Always type the URL in your browser window - and especially don’t follow links from sites you don't trust...

As for PayPal - I never meant to bash them - they give good service and have been so far the only good solution for intl. users like myself.

 

[wolfmann601]

I just closed my PayPal account. I was completely unaware. Thanks for the heads up..........Ira

 

[BaliLover]

I ONLY use a credit card with paypal and have had no problems. I don't know if this security loophole is even an issue with the CC funded accounts.

 

[Cpt. Howdy]

Thanks for the heads up, there's some pretty unscrupulous people out there! But if the link in the email you click on takes you to some bogus paypal login page, wouldn't you notice it just by the url in the address field of the browser? (i.e. some ip address or fake subnet-like name such as https://paypal.blahblah.com).

 

[Blilious]

never tried it- but the cure is so simple I don't see any need to check...

 

[george tichbourne]

Very interesting. Now I have a question, keep in mind that I am a knifemaker not a computer techie.

I have installed a jamming program on my computer and it picks up attempts at port scanning all the time (six attempts in the last half hour)....what is port scanning? and will the program make my computer more secure? How?

 

[DrewBob]

George
Port scanning is when someone uses a program to see if any of your TCP/IP ports are open to attack. Your program detects the scanning activity and denies all access to the address doing the scaning. Ports are just part of your Internet address that direct Internet packets to specific programs. Detection programs add a lot of security.

 

[Jim Richardson]

Originally posted by george tichbourne
Very interesting. Now I have a question, keep in mind that I am a knifemaker not a computer techie.

I have installed a jamming program on my computer and it picks up attempts at port scanning all the time (six attempts in the last half hour)....what is port scanning? and will the program make my computer more secure? How?

George

Everthing that the others have said is correct. You need to know though, that all scans are not attacks. For example, many programs these days are interactive so there will be an occassional check to see if a given port is available. One example of a really chatty program is anything from real player. Man of the detection/jamming programs show these as attacks.