I am posting this as a public service announcement. I have been kicking myself for hours because I fell for a scam and am now the potential victim of identity theft. I thought (very much in the past tense now) of myself as very savvy and not one to fall for some stupid online scam but I did.
It started as a notice from Hallmark notifying me that I had been the recipient of "an e-card from a friend or loved one." I clicked on this email and looked for my e-card. I was connected to the main Hallmark site. No greeting. Hmmm ... that is odd. As I moved into the Hallmark site I had clicked on a response and obviously opened a program that gave someone access to my computer. But I had not noticed. I was just looking to see who was sending me an e-card.
I click out of the Hallmark site. Oh, well.
I get a pop-up from AOL about my billing account information. This is the only place where I will defend myself. I recently changed my billing account and it made sense that AOL would need updated information. I thought I had dropped the ball properly notifying AOL on my account change. I was in a rush and did not want to deal with it at that moment so I tried to click out of the AOL screen but it would not let me. From the verbiage, I realized that I had put my AOL account at risk and it appeared I might be closed down. That would be a pain. I could not get past the AOL screen .... so I proceeded to provide AOL with the info they needed.
I am now horrified when I realize how I walked into this scam. When I provided all of the details and still could not get out of the screen, I called AOL only to learn my account was fine. There was no pop-up sent from AOL.
I have since learned that the bogus scam was attached to the Hallmark greeting. They just seemed unrelated at the time.
So, please. Be smarter than me. I have had to call everybody and their dog to try and stop this from going further. In some cases I may be too late. I am going to spend the rest of the weekend doing damage control. And, Monday is a holiday so who knows how far this can go by Tuesday. I am just sick.
25 comments:
I just got an email from a friend a day or two ago about this exact scam. I am so sorry it happended to you! My husband got his credit card number stolen and it was used at various places about the city. The man was caught because I saw unusual charges on our account which didn't make sense and contacted the particular places of business. It quickly became apparant that this was a case of identity theft. I notified the bank, who in turn notified the police. The person is now being prosecuted. I hope you have similar luck! De
You don't know how happy i am to see this posted. By you saying this on your journal you have a document. time and date stamped. so if there is any problems you can always come to this. Sorry this happend to you. something like this happened to me but i contacted aol first. thank god.
Jen
Oh! Horrible thing to have happened to you. I hope it gets sorted out ... Thanks so much for the warning!
I got that email TWICE IN TWO DAYS and today GREETINGS was spelled GRETTINGS, yesterday when I opened it, I immedialtely got a Download screen and I KNEW it wasn't right so I just got out of it and deleted it. IT WAS IN MY SPAM FOLDER!! AOL always always puts the scam stuff in my spam folder and I know now to just delete it if it's there. Anytime you get a REAL greeting card, it should come thru your regular email account not your spam folder... I have had this scam from Pay pal, Ebay, AOL, Charter One and now Hallmark. I learned my lesson when I opened the one from my bank in a panic last year..... My PC picked up on the VIRUS ATTACHED and thank GOD for two Virsus programs. You aren't stupid, jerks make this stuff believable SO YOU WILL do it! Happens to ALL OF US HONEY!! HUGS
Oh my gosh, thank you so much for posting this, I just went into my Spam folder and a Hallmark Greeting was waiting for me to open it!!! If I had not read your journal I would have done the exact same thing you did.....You are such a boyscout!! I wonder if Hallmark is aware that they are being used to lure people for this scam....Tammy
So sorry for the mishap, hopefully you caught it in time and all will be fine. Will keep you in good thoughts and keep my fingers crossed for you! Thanks for giving the rest of J-Land a heads up!!
d
I've gotten those hallmark emails before too. I think the very first time, I did use the link and go to the hallmark site. Since the whole thing was weird and it did not lead me to a card, I just exited. Now I delete the email when it comes, and yeah, it still comes. Thanks for confirming that it is indeed a scam, although I truly am sorry that you are going thru this right now. I wouldn't wish this kind of craziness on my worst enemy. I hope you can prevent any negative repurcussions. ((((hugs))))
I got that too and and got that pop up but I put in all fake stuff! Being a host for aohell you find out that anything to do with billing will not come in that form and any official aol mail comes in a blue envlope! If you haven't already runa virus scan please do it so you can get rid of the nasty virus you got with the scam!I know I had to and it wasn't nice to see the resaults from it.. ~Faye
Oh I got that too but didn't recognize the email address and deleted it...usually the cards like that will also come from the person's email that sent it to you....even though they go thru a greeting company to do it. I also noticed that it had spelled "greeting" wrong. Thankfully I deleted it. Don't feel bad, b/c lots have fallen for this one. I had remembered too that I'd heard of this before but it was a few years ago. Hope all is fine now and that your info is safe.
Sonya
I always delete that card stuff if it doesn't have a person's name on it....sorry this happened!
Becky
Oh no, that is awful. Thanks for the warning.
Terra
I got it too...twice in two days. Mine didn't open right away and wanted me to save it to my computer...I asked a friend about it before proceeding and he warned me it was a scam. Lucky for me eh? Hope you get it fixed soon...I hate those people who do those things! Robin
ALWAYS be suspicious! This is something I stress in my computer classes to the senior citizens. Trust no one you don't know! I think maybe I had a card thing too - and it was on my birthday - but the link didn't look right to me and I deleted it. I hope I didn't offend someone who really sent me a card, but who wants to take the chance ?
Thanks for the PSA! Good luck with your identity - I hope you can stop everything in time! I recently read something about notifying all 3 credit companies and setting things up so they have to contact you before they can open anything in your name.
xoo
OMG I just got that yesterday! As soon as I saw that download pop up I knew there was something wrong...I figured a virus. I've gotten myself into many messes with things like that so I try to be more careful too. The internet can be a very scary place!
Good luck and hugs,
Jessica
Donna I got it too.....and now I cant get it off the desktop...The hubby is a puter guy....he has to go into the resitry to get it out!!
ARRRRRRRR
Wow. I'm sorry you had to go thru that. That's horrible, and those sick people are getting trickier and trickier. Have you tried to go to the Branch and have them put a temporary block on the account? So they can reissue another one? Good Luck with that, and I hope nothing comes thru, you can always go to an ATM or go to the bank and withdrawal the money until Tuesday (If you can't make it to the branch today.) Unless you have some kind of checks out, notify the company you may have some fraud on your account. I'm sure you'll be able to work it out. It's scary! :-) Good Luck to you!
-Kim
http://journals.aol.com/kimberleyrose82/Justme/
I got a hallmark greeting too, but nothing was there when I clicked on the link, so I exited quickly thinking that there might be a virus.
I hate this for you!!
hugs,
Kathi
:( I'm so sorry to hear this. I got one yesterday, but noticed they spelled "Greeting" as "Gretting" and it didn't specify a name of anyone I know sending it -- ALL of the legit online card companies send it from the name of the sender -- and it would be someone I know. I clicked to report it as Spam without opening the e-mail at all. Years of being an AOL Community Leader helping folks fight the scams sunk in, I guess. I hope your damages are minimal. Make sure you run a virus scan, a Trojan Cleaner and change your passwords on the account. If you report the CC info as stolen, you should be able to limit your loss to $50. Still not nice, but... probably less than the idiots would spend.
Yeah :(
I actually recieved two of the same notices in my email box. Anyone who knows me, knows I am probably overly cautious about mail from people/places I don't know. I had a virus run through my computer a while back that nearly fried it. So it's no to FWDs and NO to greetings from anywhere but AOL greetings. Don't feel bad these scammers find new and exciting ways to mess things up for honest people, you have nothing to be kicking yourself about...at all. Hang in there.
Always, Carly :)
That's awful, Donna; I hope it gets worked out. Thanks for alerting us. I might have done the exact same thing.
betty
Thank you for sharing i did not know:)
Deb
I have done that before...It is definately a pain!!! Thanks for the painful reminder, lol! But no seriously I hope your computer is ok and thanks for the warning ; )
ttyl
<3. em
p.s. olivia says hi to her internet gma ; )
Im sorry this happened to you! This is horrible! I hope it gets cleared up! There are some really terrible people out there!
~Tricia
I had two of those "Hallmark" things in my mailbox when I got home from doing an event this weekend. I clicked on one, but when it didn't tell me who the greeting was from right away, I clicked out and deleted both emails. Hopefully, I didn't do anything stupid... Lisa :-]
I am truly sorry to hear about that incident. I have heard of similar scams but I'm thankful that you shared info on this one, (Hallmark) in particular. I hope that nothing has happened to you up to this point. I actually have worked with Identity Theft victims. I hope you have notified the 3 major bureaus so that they can at least have a notation on file. Also, you can gt some more information on Identity Theft and what you can do to protect yourself before AND after possible exposure. Just visit: www.prepaidlegal.com/hub/chambersc
Please let me know if this was helpful.
Regards,
Lamar
Post a Comment