| August, 2002 Diablo Blue Page 13 |
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| To make sure it's really you, they also want your Social Security Number, date of birth, driver's license number, and mother's maiden name. With that, the scammers can get to "identity theft" heaven before you shut down your PC for the night. But they're not finished. How about throwing in your AOL screen name and password, something even novices know AOL wouldn't do. To add a level of legitimacy, they warn you that, "For your safety, Please do not download any files from strangers. AOL will never ask you to download anything." Who Is? I went to http://www.samspade.org, my favorite Web examination site, and traced the Billing link. It's an obfuscated URL: http://www.aol.com-billing:july-2002@072002.hypermart.net that leads to http://072002.hypermart.net. (That's because any characters before the @ sign are ignored.) And all it took was a quick web search with Google to find locations loaded with other AOL scamming files. I found one at the top of Google's search: http://kenel.hypermart.net/aol-scam/ What I did I contacted Rich D'Amato, one of AOL's security people. I met Rich years ago because of a story I did on AOL. It's been four days and I haven't heard back from him. I also sent a message to abuse@hypermart.net. Nope, I didn't hear from them either. And the site's sill up and running. What you should do The best AOL protection strategy is to be alert to constant scams. You know, if it looks like a duck, smells like one, and occasionally quacks, there's a good chance it is one. If you're unsure about a billing question, it's best to call AOL's billing services directly at 800/827-6364, or their Screen Name/Password line at 888/265-8004. Here's the message, complete with headers: _____________________________________________ Return-path: <Remindingyou@aol.com> From: Remindingyou@aol.com Date: Fri, 5 Jul 2002 04:26:47 EDT Subject: Possible Service Interuption X-Mailer: AOL 5.0 for Windows sub 138 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Dear Member: Thank you for choosing America Online. Unfortunately there has been a problem processing your billing information for the month of July, 2002. Please review our billing requirements at KW: Billing. You will be able to update your billing information quickly and easily using our secure server webform. Please understand that without promptly updating your billing information, your America Online Internet service may be discontinued. To update your billing at this time, please visit our secure server webform by clicking the hyperlink below. America Online Billing Services. {hyperlink deleted for this article!} We appreciate your business and hope to keep you as a customer for life. America Online is so easy, no wonder it's number 1 ! Sincerely, The AOL Billing Services Team |