talkmagic.co.uk

If you get an email entitled: "Magic Tricks from Magic Shop .co.uk: Restore Your Account Access"

Don't click on the link. It's a phishing scam designed to gain access to your PayPal account - and, of course, to empty it.

Thanks for the heads up, no doubt variations based on other magic supply sites will crop up in due course. Any unexpected e-mails suggesting/requesting restoration of an account should be viewed with suspicion and independently checked/verified with the site before doing anything else.

Yep, I just got one. The spam filter wasn't fooled for an instant. The fact that it purports to come from PayPal is a pretty blatant giveaway.

There seems to be a rash of these "account verification" scams lately under the names of all kinds of banks. I'm getting about two a day on average. At least they make a change from Viagra and fake watches.

Robbie wrote: At least they make a change from Viagra and fake watches.

Ah, I could use some Via.... Fake Watches...

I don't even open the e-mails the bank or my mum send me so you'd think I'd be safe from this kind of thing but apparently I sent everyone in my address book a link to some random electrical shop a while back!
Got a couple of interesting e-mails back from that. My address book has now been made a bit more up to date.

Lawrence wrote:I don't even open the e-mails the bank or my mum send me so you'd think I'd be safe from this kind of thing but apparently I sent everyone in my address book a link to some random electrical shop a while back!
Got a couple of interesting e-mails back from that. My address book has now been made a bit more up to date.

You may need to change your password a bit more often too

Tomo wrote:

Lawrence wrote:I don't even open the e-mails the bank or my mum send me so you'd think I'd be safe from this kind of thing but apparently I sent everyone in my address book a link to some random electrical shop a while back!
Got a couple of interesting e-mails back from that. My address book has now been made a bit more up to date.

You may need to change your password a bit more often too

Have you just hacked my e-mails?
I'll change it when I get home then shall I?

Lawrence wrote:

Tomo wrote:You may need to change your password a bit more often too

Have you just hacked my e-mails?
I'll change it when I get home then shall I?

Not me guv, and yes you should.

If you don't change your passwords regularly, your accounts effectively become stationary targets. But passwords need to be gibberish. Here's how to generate them and be able to recall them instantly...

1. Pick a favourite song, poem, etc. you know well.
2. Take the initial letters from the first line.
3. Change vowels into numbers (a=4, e=3, etc.)

Random example: current song on Spotify is Living on the Ceiling by Blancmange. The first line is "You keep me running round and round, well that's all right by me", giving "ykmrrarwtarbm", giving "ykmrr4rwt4bm".

That's a 12-letter password that's both gibberish and easy to recall. When it comes time to change it do the same with the next line in the song. Simples!

I got caught out by one of those scams about 6 months ago, luckily I realised quickly and changed my paypal password before anyone did anything naughty.

Some of them are frightenly deceptive.

I had one recently telling me that I was due a £3000 rebate from inland revenue.

Thety had all the right Logos and looked very official. But to get my refund I had to provide them with all sorts of deatails about my bankc account............................

Another tip: If your email client or webmail service allows you to read emails in plain text, then do so! The bogus URLs show up like a polar bear in a tuxedo and bow tie trying to get into a penguins only night club.

Tomo wrote: The bogus URLs show up like a polar bear in a tuxedo and bow tie trying to get into a penguins only night club.

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After Nigeria was eliminated from the world cup the Nigerian goalkeeper personally offered to refund all the expenses of fans that travelled to South Africa .

He said he just needs their bank details and pin numbers to complete the transaction.........

What is so surprising that so many magicians seem to be getting this phishing mail. It seems highly targeted

ajaxjones wrote:What is so surprising that so many magicians seem to be getting this phishing mail. It seems highly targeted

I bet Magic Tricks have had their customer database hacked.

I had one too didnt even open it (I dont think)