WATCH OUT FOR FAKE EMAIL PAYMENTS via CERTAPAY!

[shoplineca]

Wow! I just got the most realistic scam email I have rec'd todate. One of my morning emails advises me of an interact payment thru Certapay (which is quite legitimate as I get these all the time frm Cdn customers).

The 2 problems which 1st cautioned me to NOT click the links are (1) it for a $961 CAD payment for a laptop (which I am not selling) and (b) it is addressed to one of my business email addresses (which I never have payments sent thru and at best it should be addressed to my eBay userid c/o my email address).

Now the next thing that may come to mind is that someone made a mistake and sent the payment to the wrong seller and curiosity and greed may have some people clicking on the links to determine if it is real even after deciding it was not for them. Notice the poor use of French in the email.

Please note that payments coming thru Certapay will NOT have any additional references in the URL such as "gateway-certapay". This is a typical clue to determining if any email is real or a scam.

This is a very clever method to attempt to obtain your bank password and access your account. The links will direct you to a fake site to enter all your personal bank information to allow soemone to clean out your accounts.

Here is the email (I have removed the links so no one makes an error and proceeds):

"Dear User,

MARYBETH HEDD has sent you an INTERAC Email Money Transfer.

Amount: $961.00 (CAD)

Sender's Message: Payment for laptop.

Expiry Date: 2005-04-20

Action Required:
To deposit your money, click here:
XXX//gateway-certapay.com/RP.do/?pID=Sli6g20jkm8%3D

Trouble with the link? Copy the link and paste it into your web
browser address bar. Please make sure all the characters after the
"pID=" are present.

Need help?
XXX.certapay.com/ca/oon/en/help

---------------------------------------------------------
What is an INTERAC Email Money Transfer?
If you have an email address and online banking password at a
participating bank, you can send and receive money instantly.
Email carries the notice while the banks securely transfer the money
using existing payment networks. If your bank does not yet offer
INTERAC Email Money Transfers, you can still deposit transfers to any
bank account in Canada. Click XXX.certapay.com/en/personalPayments/FAQs.html for details.

Pour voir les d©tails du virement en fran§ais,
cliquez sur le lien
XXX//gateway-certapay.com/RP.do?pID=Sli6g20jkm8%3D et choisissez
le bouton "Fran§ais" dans notre site web."

There is NO doubt, these scams are improving and are being directly targeted to each of us as this is only for Cdn businesses.

I have forwarded this on to Certapay and will update if they get back to me.

Malcolm

[alero0]

Another clue that this is a scam is that it's addressed to "Dear User". You should never trust this type of request if they don't address it to your full name or your user ID.

Harvey

[itrecovery]

Last year we have got ideal fake copy of Bidpay notifications. With correct source e-mail address and content.

The only reason we was able to catch it, we didn't find it in our Bidpay profile. Also, bidder wanted overnight (always a red flag).

[shoplineca]

Update from Certapay:

"Dear Malcolm,

Thank-you for taking the time to notify CertaPay regarding the unsolicited email which you recently received. Your alert attention to this questionable contact was correct, and we wish to verify that the correspondence was not legitimate. CertaPay has taken steps to shut-down the source of the distribution and are working closely with law enforcement on this issue.

It is CertaPay's understanding that the email you received, in particular the "links" contain viruses and Trojans. It is important to permanently delete this email immediately from your system. In addition, do not forward the email to anyone, even for verification purposes.

We appreciate your concern and thank-you for taking immediate action in bringing this to our attention.

*Registered trademark of Interac Inc. Used under license.

Sincerely,
Jeff"

I would love te hear the conclusion to this to see if they do find the source.

Malcolm

[lockotronic]

I had received a legit payment from certapay and later got it reversed because they said the account was stolen and I lost $175. Please be aware that wertapay email money is not secure, I guess the best way is to wait two three days.

[lina-mallows]

I received the same e-mail.
I checked on who the domain was registered to- tXm_rXshlXw.cXm- and forwarded it back to him, with the following note: "I believe this fraud belongs to you."
Funny, I never did receive a response.,