Tauranga TradeMe user Claire Warren is advising people to check their accounts and be wary of any emails claiming to be from TradeMe after she received a scam email requesting her personal details.
On Saturday Claire received an email from what appeared to be TradeMe stating there had been three unauthorised attempts to gain access to her account.
Claire Warren is warning people to be wary of opening and filling out email attachments claiming to be from TradeMe.
The email then warned if the attached from was not completed and returned within 24-hours her account would be suspended.
The email attachment required credit card details including Claire's credit ‘Card Verification Value' number and driver licence details.
'It looks so genuine but it is not from Trade Me.”
Claire contacted a TradeMe communications advisor on Sunday morning and received a reply on Sunday night confirming the email was not sent from TradeMe.
This is the first time Claire has received such an email from TradeMe and advises other TradeMe users to be careful.
'Hopefully most people will be savvy enough to check their TradeMe accounts first, like I did.”
TradeMe communications advisor Jeff Hunkin says a similar email was sent to TradeMe users last week asking for credit card details.
Jeff says TradeMe was quick to identify the problem and a site announcement was sent out to TradeMe users immediately.
'We managed to get a hold of that and talk to the right people.”
Head of TradeMe Trust and Safety Jon Duffy says for some reason the scanning of phishing attachment emails did not happen last week, resulting in a large number of people receiving an identical email asking people to disclose personal information.
Jon says it appears an identical phishing email has been set up but the possibility of TradeMe users receiving the recent email is remarkably low.
He says TradeMe offered advice to those who received the email and did disclose person details how to discontinue credit cards and driver licences.
He says people should be aware TradeMe will never ask for personal details to be disclosed.
'Your personal details are precious and if you are ever asked to disclose them you should pause to think. If you are in any doubt, contact the website.”
'These people rely on people not reading things carefully.”
Jon believes the main reason this email is being received by TradeMe users is due to what is being typed into Google search engines.
TradeMe offers a trust and safety link at the bottom of their website educating people on how to protect themselves from phishing emails.
Alternatively, contact www.netsafe.com
2 comments
possiblity may have been remarkably low
Posted on 26-09-2012 07:16 | By tmc
I doubt that - I got one and know of quite a few others who did too. I hope everyone thought about it and then hit the delete button
It's moving to snail mail as well...
Posted on 28-09-2012 14:33 | By PeteDashwood
There is a simple test for any kind of unsolicited mail: If it offers large sums of money and requires information and/or money from you, bin it. In the last week I have had 4 snail mails from fortune tellers, clairvoyants, lotteries, and some crowd in Las Vegas who it was hard to figure out what their actual deal was. (Something like a sweepstake or chain letter but you have to answer questions at each "level" (to keep it legal); if you answer all questions succesfully (after sending money to continue participating at each level) you win thousands of dollars... The lower level questions are all inanely easy but I imagine the last one is virtually unanswerable (maybe, "What is the Meaning of Life?" or "How many traffic cones were deployed on NZ roads on 20th February, 1967?"...you catch my drift.) Deleting scam emails is easy but there is a certain satisfaction in just tearing an envelope in half without even reading it and recognising that some low life paid postage and printing costs on it. Most of these scams are coming out of the Netherlands, but they are selling your name and adress details to other places, so the post can be from a number of countries. They usually arrive in an very official looking envelope with all kinds of seals and stamps on it. Be wary.
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