I’ve been computer literate since the early eighties and am obviously much too smart to get caught by those awful scammers from Nigeria or those dreadful phishers from Romania. I mean anyone must be so naive to give out their bank details to any Tom, Dick or Harry over the internet.
This morning I got home from an early morning workout at the gym and had only an hour to spare before having to leave for a hospital appointment, that’s my excuse. I checked my emails and nearly had apoplexy when I saw a bill from PayPal for £38.49 I had been charged by Microsoft for my Skype account. The PayPal bill was identical to their usual bills it was a receipt stating that I had sent a payment of £38.49 to orders@Skype.co.uk it had the proper Merchant details and had a link to open a dispute via paypal.com which then directed to sign in to open a dispute.
I was so busy verbally abusing Microsoft for tricking me into paying for Skype when I had understood it to be free and the PayPal dispute page appeared to be totally genuine that I entered my Debit Card details and my security questions. It was only when I pressed enter and immediately got the reply that my dispute was upheld and my account would not be debited, that I smelt a rat. DOH!
PayPal bless them gave me a fast reply to my direct email asking if this was a phishing scam. Guess what? Well I am very old! (How dare you say and also very stupid).
I have used up the best part of the day getting a new Debit Card from my Bank and getting a new one sent. Changing my personal details, password and security questions at PayPal and mentally apologising to Microsoft.
This evening I have spent emotionally giving myself a good kicking for being so stupid. At least I haven’t lost any cash and my Bank and PayPal assure me that my accounts are both safe once more. Now that you have been advised it obviously couldn’t possibly happen to you . . . . . . . . . or could it?
