Anyone heard of vitalwerks?

[luv]

A friend of mine got money automatically deducted from her checking account.

Description Unit price Qty Amount
SMTP - Alternate Port (750 Msgs) b.t
Item# 0 $59.95 USD 1 $59.95 USD
SMTP - Alternate Port (750 Msgs) b.u
Item# 1 $59.95 USD 1 $59.95 USD

This was on three different invoices, so over $360 was taken out of her checking. It was paid via paypal, and she does not, to her knowledge have a paypal account. She's disputed these chrges with her bank, with paypal, and with vitalwerks.

Do these charges mean anything to anyone? She's not familiar with what SMTP is, and so am I. Just thought I would try to help her figure out what might have happened.

[banyon]

Originally Posted by luv

Got an email from my friend saying that I should cancel my paypal because she got an email from them saying accounts had been hacked. I'm pretty sure it's someone who hacked her and created an account after that.

My paypal account was hacked at one point. Thankfully I caught it before the time elapsed for changing the account info.

Your friend needs to report this to 1)her bank 2) paypal 3)one of the major credit check services (experian, equifax, transunion) AND get a fraud alert placed on her credit.

Also 4) flush out her computer and any possible hacks with a memory wipe/reset. As long as she is not actually out any money, she problable doesn't need to sue anyone. Almost invariably, these people aren't in the United States (or at least their accounts aren't).

When this happened to me, a guy was selling Hungarian purses from my eBay account.

[BigRedChief]

Looks like to me its a pretty straight forward phishing scam. She put in some information into a bank or paypal link that was sent to her. she should get her money back without an issue but she now has a larger issue that is not going to be easy to clean up, identity theft.

Get on a credit monitoring program. Watch your accounts for unusual activity and report it immediately.

[BigRichard]

Originally Posted by luv

Got an email from my friend saying that I should cancel my paypal because she got an email from them saying accounts had been hacked. I'm pretty sure it's someone who hacked her and created an account after that.

There is your phishing scam. She probably replied to this email and got taken by it. Tell your friend to quit using the web. She is going to get screwed even worse.

[BigRichard]

Originally Posted by luv

Got an email from my friend saying that I should cancel my paypal because she got an email from them saying accounts had been hacked. I'm pretty sure it's someone who hacked her and created an account after that.

Never ever reply to an email saying your account has been disabled, hacked and/or changed. Do not click on any links and don't give them any account information. If you are concerned it is real either look up the phone number of the place and call them directly or go directly to their website and don't follow the link in their email.