01 October 2007

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT from David Schwartz

6 comments

I got an email from David Schwartz about fraud warning. Thanks David and you can visit David at http://blog.thetoolwiz.com :

Two or three weeks back, a fellow IMer, David Cavanagh reported that his Google GMail account got hacked somehow and taken over by someone who went through the emails and changed the logins for a bunch of his other accounts, and generally caused a TON of damage. He said that Google wasn't very helpful in the matter.

Well, I've just come across a GMail vulnerability alert that everybody with a
GMail account needs to read: http://www.thetoolwiz.com/HotPicks/GMailHacked2

It seems Google has now discovered a way that people can take over your GMail account without your knowledge or permission just by you visiting a web site with a tiny bit of javascript that's run inside your browser while you're logged into your GMail account.

The Good News is they've fixed this little vulnerability. But ... it does nothing if
someone as already gotten into your account this way!

Apparently, they don't think it's important enough to bother telling their users,
either. Did you get an email from them about this? I sure didn't!

In short, get into your GMail account RIGHT NOW and check your SETTINGS | FILTERS and see if there are any there that you don't recognize. If so, delete them and change your password IMMEDIATELY!

As a general rule, I never forward stuff to my friends, and I don't normally advise it either. But in this particular case, it might be a good idea if you DO FORWARD THIS TO YOUR FRIENDS.

It's a simple thing for Google to send out an alert to their customers. But like many big companies, they hate calling attention to their own shortcomings. And besides, there's probably something buried in their Terms Of Service that say they're not responsible for monitoring or even informing you of problems in their system they may have created.

On another fraud-related topic, I strongly encourage you to examine your credit and debit card accounts for charges from either of these two vendors:
-----------------------
Merchant: TM NETGAMES SAN FRANCISCO CA
Purchase Date: Sep. 17, 2007
Authorized Amount: -$16.94 USD
Authorization Date: Sep. 17, 2007
Time: 07:27:31 PDT
-----------------------
Merchant: MTC TOUCH Beirut LB
Purchase Date: Sep. 17, 2007
Authorized Amount: -$41.69 USD
Authorization Date: Sep. 17, 2007
Time: 07:33:23 PDT
-----------------------

These are from my PayPal Debit Card account, and they showed up without my knowledge or authorization. I posted something in a forum, and since then nearly a dozen other people have reported almost identical transactions in one of their accounts. The common denominators thus far are:

* PayPal Debit cards or virtual cards
* WaMu Debit Cards
* people with accounts at RegisterFly and/or GoDaddy
* people who've used a wireless connection to purchase something recently, particularly in or around certain hotels, including wireless access at hotels

If you find one of these charges on any account, dispute it immediately with your card service provider.

Note that the amounts being charged to TM NETGAMES have varied from $13 to $19, while the ones to MTC TOUCH have all been right around $41.

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6 comments: to “ IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT from David Schwartz


  • February 24, 2008 at 3:47 PM  

    I have also received a charge from TM Netgames for a download I did not receive but I also received a charge from Encore Software WWW.myordcommn for software I downloaded but which did not work and they will not give me a refund.


  • February 25, 2008 at 11:05 AM  

    Hi All,

    My name is Christa and I am a mediator of Consumer Fraud at the DA's office in San Francisco. We have received complaints regarding unauthorized charges from TM Netgames and are currently beginning an investigation of the charges. After doing a little research, I can see that several others are victims to these fraudulent charges as well. In order to best investigate and research these suspicious charges we need to compile as much information as possible. If you are interested in helping us investigate this case and providing us with information of your situation, please contact us at consumer_mediation@sfgov.org or call us at (415) 551-9595. Thanks.


  • March 31, 2008 at 10:28 PM  

    Hello,

    I have also the same problem with you. Two charges from TM Netgames and MTC TOUCH . I never use the NET Games and even don't know about the MTC Touch in Lebanon. Visit my blog to see more http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-JTs6iFMlc6dxCky7hUklCIk-?cq=1&p=92


  • April 1, 2008 at 2:32 AM  

    i was charged twice by mcafee, once by TM netgames and once by Travian games all in the month of march. it was on my WaMu debit card, and i use to have a domain at registerfly (before i found out what a horrible company they were) and now all my domains are at godaddy! so looks like i'm in that boat too! i filed a claim with WaMu and they will replace the money. but it disturbs me that this happened!


  • July 12, 2008 at 8:20 PM  

    I also had fraudulent charges by TM Netgames for $54.18 4 times in a row, also The History Project in...for $.01. This was done on my wamu debit card. I called them immediately about this matter as soon as I found out today. I googled TM Netgames and thats when I realized that it has to do with PayPal. I went straight to PayPal.com, made sure I had no creditcard numbers on file and then close the account out. So, right know I have to wait and see. Wamu told me to call back when the charges aren't pending anymore. Be aware that this happens in Amazon.com too.


  • August 8, 2008 at 7:14 PM  

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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