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PCS mastercard. Why do scammers love them ?

Scammers often ask their victims to send money in the form of PCS mastercard refill coupon.

Many of you come to 1sc.org after a request concerning the PCS MasterCard in your Internet search engine. Most of the time, you had never heard of PCS mastercard before.

What is behind that name? And why has it become the preferred tool for scammers to make you sending money to them ?

The PCS mastercard is a payment tool, which looks like a credit card. It also has much in common with a classic credit card as your traditional bank can deliver you. With a PCS mastercard, it is both possible to pay any merchant that accepts credit cards and withdraw money in from the whole affiliated Mastercard network, i.e. almost all ATM machines.

Benefits the crooks have clearly understood

The main difference between a credit card from your bank and a PCS mastercard is that the former is not connected to any bank account and then is completely anonymous. You can buy it in any PCS sales point worldwide without having to provide any identity.

This is already a great advantage for those who want to remain discreet under some barely lawful operations. But this is not the only advantage. PCS mastercards are being credited by PCS refill coupons, also easily available worldwide.

In the manner of a gift card or phone recharge, a PCS card refill coupon is credited with a certain amount. The PCS card is recharged by entering the code on the refill coupon. This is convenient for honest users who have a way to get a payment card with expense limited by the amount credited through those refill coupons. No way to make an overdraft.

But it is also a very interesting aspect for scammers. Indeed, in correspondence with their victims, scammers ask their targets to buy refill coupons and send them the code. In this way, scammers credit their PCS card with money from their victims. This is anonymous and irreversible, it is then impossible for victims to get refunded or find the crooks afterwards

A PCS mastercard can be a great payment tool for honest users, but is also a good tool for scammers to receive money during Internet scams. Our best advice is to run away as soon as a person met on the Internet asks you to send money via PCS card refill coupons.

Google launch Password Alert against phishing attempts

A new extension called “password alert” warns the internet user when entering a gmail password on a phishing webpage.

To fight against phishing attempts, Google has released an extension for its Chrome browser called “password alert”

People often think that hacking is the prerogative of computer nerds who implement highly technical computer codes to enter secure servers. But the reality is much simpler.

The most effective way to know a password is still… to ask for it

This is called phishing. Who has never received an e-mail from someone pretending to be your bank, your tax, or your Internet Service Provider, asking you to send your password?

And it works! Recent hacking of Sony website is a very good example of spear phishing. Spear phishing is an alternative of the usual phishing attempt with personalized emails targeting some specific people inside the company.

To fight against this scourge, Google has just created an extension available only for Chrome. Chrome being the homemade browser of the famous search engine.

During the installation of “password alert”, a “scrambled version of your password is stored on your computer”. This is what is stated in the presentation of the extension. Then “password alert” compares it with what you may type during your stay on the internet.

In other words, if you enter your gmail password on a web page that is not authenticated as a login page to the Google services, the extension “password alert” will show on your screen a message, similar to the image of the article. The extension then prompts you to change your gmail password before it can be used fraudulently.

Although the extension “password alert” appears, at least theoretically, a new step against phishing attempts, it presents some limitations. It only works on Chrome and it only works with your gmail password, it will not work if you use another email service.

Paypal separates from eBay: Resurgence of phishing attempts!

The future separation of Paypal and eBay will cause an increase in phishing attempts

In September 2014, eBay announced the intention of separating from his Paypal subsidiary acquired in 2002. This separation, which is expected in the second half of 2015, is getting closer and the details of this divorce are being revealed.

If you are a PayPal user, you may have already received an email entitled “Our Legal Agreements are changing”. Inside you can read that “Soon, PayPal and eBay will no longer be part of the same group of companies and will operate as unrelated organization”. It implies that “Use agreement, Acceptable Use Policy and Private Policy” will be updated in order to “continue providing the same great services you are used to.”

The email then prompts the user to click on a link for “details of these changes”. It redirects to the paypal.com site and gives access to Policy update.

ebay paypal separation — Credit : O2 Community

The image above is the image of the email received from Paypal to indicate changes to come after his future separation from eBay.

Scammers are always on the lookout for opportunities. You will probably also receive e-mails being phishing attempts usurping Paypal identity, or even that of eBay. Scammers will take advantage of the official communication to send phishing attempts. They will try to rip a few distracted or misinformed internet users about this practice.

Remember the three techniques to distinguish a genuine email from Paypal:

The email sender address must be paypal.com or paypal.co.uk (or paypal.[your country code])
The email must include your first name and your last name (and not “Dear Customer” or “Dear user”)
The link in the email should redirect to a paypal.com address (Pay attention to the fact that “paypal” must be just before the .com, for example “paypal.xyz.com “is NOT an official paypal site)