Don't fall for email scams...like me.

I received several emails from 'paypal' recently. I deleted them as normal. Usually, it is some form of unsolicited advertisement. However, one of them caught my eye before I had the chance to delete it...If only I could relive that moment because that proved to be a mistake. The email said that my account security was in jeopardy. Some unauthorized "third" party was accessing my account. I have to investigate this right? Logical, right? I checked the email address to make sure it was from paypal. And yes indeed, it seemed to be. I then clicked on the link it provided.

Little did I know about the twisted universe I had just entered..

Got to the page and entered my log-in and password. After that, I was brought to another page, which said that for security purposes, they needed me to re-enter my credit card information. I was a little leery of doing this, but remember this site looked alot like the real paypal website. So like a fool, I filled out the form until i got to "enter your ATM PIN for our review services"

...thats when I froze

I thought, "hey, that is not right'. at the time it did not hit me, that what i was actually looking at, was one of those fraud sites. remember, at the time, i just gotten back from work, at 2am, and I was super tired. The next mistake I made was that i clicked on the cancel button...which probably sent all of my card information over. Plus I included that 3 digit number from the back of the credit card...not the pin, but just as bad.

After I clicked on cancel the website just refreshed. I thought that was weird. So I clicked on all of the links it had there and they all took me to the same spot. then i looked up at the domain name, it was not paypal at all. Then I knew. I have become a vicitm of the internet fraud machine.

you can see these assholes in action (link may not work anymore)

if you want to go there yourself. i do not know if a gremlin or virus or something else jumps from their servers to your computer, but check it out.

http://www1.phda.org/p/update.html

I went and took care of everything with the bank and paypal and several other sites. i actually closed my paypal account, considering the fact that i never used it much. overall, the whole scenario was a fucking pain and if somehow i could find out who this asshole or these assholes were, i feel as if though i could beat them with a baseball bat or something worse...you see, i am not an angry person normally, but... well, I guess I am always angry.