[cycler]

I'm using Windows XP Home on a Dell PC

I was revising an item on Ebay (I've been selling there for a long time and this has never happened before and I didn't change my security settings) and after finishing my revisions at the bottom of the page there is a continue button which normally takes you to a page to review the changes and then click a submit button.

This time after clicking continue a gray pop-up appeared - one of the "you are being sent to a page which contains secure and non-secure" (something - I don't remember exactly but it is the box that always shows on some sites but as I said I've never seen it on Ebay and I called and they said that it wasn't their change) and since I've usually only seen it on reliable sites I automatically clicked ok and instead of being taken to the review page a completely different page was there which said "Congratulations! You are now an Ebay Seller!"

What?

So I went back to the item and none of my revisions were there but I was able to revise it and submit. But I was concerned so I called Ebay and they had no answers. I changed my password and AVG doesn't show anything. As I was writing this I realized I ought to run Malwarebytes so I'm doing that now.

Anyway - has anyone ever heard of a someone creating one of those gray pop-ups to take your information on a site?

Thanks!

[jbm1991]

yeah its not an uncommon problem. its the general concept of "phishing", they make something which looks real and genuine but it isnt. and they are sadly getting very good at it.

[cycler]

Thanks, John. They didn't believe me at customer support. It looked exactly like the real one.

So how do you know if it's real? For example, on Amazon it pops-up almost every time you change pages in your account.

And I was right to change my password?

Susan

[jbm1991]

yeah you were right to change your password. a good way of telling whether a webpage is genuine or not is if you hover over the link you are about to click on, then look down at the bottom of you screen, near the start button, and it will show the address of the page the link is being directed to. they often change the words very very slightly eg. www.ebay.com = real BUT www.ebaay.com isnt. that was a fairly obvious example but you get my drift.

with regards to emails and the like have a try at this little quiz: http://www.sonicwall.com/phishing/

[cycler]

Thanks - that's a great piece of information! I also downloaded Dr. Web to be extra careful but I never thought that I needed to worry about a Windows pop-up.

I am really cautious about my mail messages - I only open the one in my Ebay mailbox - I get about 5 fakes a day!

[jbm1991]

no problem
heres a few extra things for you:
1) always change your password at least once a month or so if you want to be really safe
2) if you use internet explorer i STRONGLY advise downloading Mozilla Firefox from here and using it from now on. its faster and a lot safer than internet explorer.
3) if you already use Mozilla firefox (or if you have just started using it following my advice is the step above) as your web browser then i recommend you download these add-ons:
- adblock plus: it will block pretty much every pop up and web banner and the like.
- McAfee Site Advisor: This adds a small box the bottom of your firefox page which is colour coded rated on a sites safety. it also adds a small coloured dot next to all search results in your preferred search engine, so you can get a good idea whether to click on it or not.
- WOT user ratings: this is similar to mcafee site advisor but its icon is near the top of the firefox window. if a site is rated red it will prevent you from going on the site and ask you to confirm that you definately want to proceed. its saved my skin on a few occasions.


oh and another thing, a popular change in website address by phishers is changing the "y" letters to "u" or "v" letters, as links are often underline it is hard to see the bar under the "y" thus making a "u" or "v" look very like a "y" after a quick look. Spot the false 2 links below: (dont click on these links, i've just made them links for demonstration):

link 1 = http://www.ebay.com
link 2 = http://www.ebay.com
link 3 = http://www.ebay.com


Do let me know how you get on


PS: oh and for the record i get a fake/spam email once every 8 minutes