Support Fraud?

[Marieluise261188279cqv]

Hi,

after having published here my printing issue with Acrobat, I got a PN from a Jan Wolfert:

Welcome to Adobe Support Community

Hi,

You can Directly send Email to our Adobe Customer Care Team Email Address:-
AdobeHelpCare@outlook.com and they will help you via Email.

Team Adobe

I was very pleased about this personal service of Adobe Support. Haha. I should have known better. So, when I had a new issue after having re-installed Acrobat 9, I wrote directly to this person, and after some correspondence where among other I complained that Adobe gives great discounts to students and teachers, but artists often have a much smaller budget and therefore have to rely on second-hand software, he offered me a legitimate licence for Adobe 2020 at a very affordable price. He sent me an official Adobe invoice and I paid by Paypal. I was a bit confused that I had to pay to a Hemant Kumar but was still too sleepy this morning to feel a real alert. After having downloaded from the Adobe site and installed the program informed me that the key I was given was used up and no longer valid.

Only afterwards I had the idea to check that email address and indeed, it is reported several times for fraud/phishing. I am just trying to get my money back via Paypal. Can any official person here confirm that the invoice is falsified?

[Moderator deleted private information. Please do not post private information like e-mails and phone numbers]

[try67 · Accepted solution]

I'm not an official Adobe employee (only those with this tag under their names are), but I can tell you with 100% certainty it's a scam. This email address is known to be used by various scammers operating on this site. NO official Adobe business will be conducted from an outlook.com email address.

[try67 · Accepted solution]

I'm not an official Adobe employee (only those with this tag under their names are), but I can tell you with 100% certainty it's a scam. This email address is known to be used by various scammers operating on this site. NO official Adobe business will be conducted from an outlook.com email address.

[Marieluise261188279cqv]

Yes, you are absolutely right. Unfortunately, cheap prices sometimes cloud the mind. After my eyes opened because of the wrong Serial No, I googled the email address. I should have done that before.

Now I am given a new serial number. I don't even try it; it will also be wrong. The sender without any signature writes:

On our website only creative cloud subscription products are available and Perpetual license available through resellers
Hemant kumar is the Adobe Genuine reseller from India.
If he really were, I would be sorry for Adobe. 

[Abambo]

There is no such thing like a free meal. And again, there is no company the size of Adobe, using free mail to communicate with customers. Even if unexpectedly, you get mail from an apparent valid Adobe address, you shoul be very careful. 

[Marieluise261188279cqv]

And how would you exercise caution in such a case (email from an Adobe address)? Is it possible to have such attempts checked by phishing@adobe.com? And would they respond in a timely manner? Or would I have to guess myself by analyzing the full header (which I don't understand completely?)

[Abambo]

You do not need to understand the full header… only looking at raw email addresses will be enough. But there are some indications:

• Adobe does not contact you unexpectedly. (mostly true)
• You can always contact support via chat or phone or even twitter.

You should look into articles like this one: https://www.itgovernance.co.uk/blog/5-ways-to-detect-a-phishing-email

[try67]

> And how would you exercise caution in such a case (email from an Adobe address)?

It's NOT an Adobe address, though. To be one the domain (the part after the "@" symbol) has to be adobe.com, or contain ".adobe.com" (for example, joe@clients.adobe.com, but NOT joe@clientsadobe.com or joe@adobeclients.com). Anything else is fake and should not be trusted as coming from Adobe.

[ls_rbls]

You should exercise caution with any email; that also include family and friends, software companies and Iternet service providers; and just as much as we trust and drink the tap water in our homes without even questioning what exactly is in that water.

Do you Get the point????

The anaylyzing of a full email header is only for forensics purposes, and it is only helpful if someone was actually helping you to trace back and actually catch the perpetrator(s).

For example, you keep referring to a "he".

How do you know is a he,  a she, an it, a bot, or artificial intelligence generated email ? 

Or even worst, how can you tell if you or your loved ones are currently targeted from an entire organization operating abroad domestically in the US or foreign to the US??

That said,  for way over a decade, cyberciminals and scammers are smart enough to spoof  email headers (to include the originating IP adresses).

In other words, what you think you get from analyzing a raw email header it is all disguised as coming from an intentionally  obfuscated email relay server, which can also be spoofed or obfuscated by using anyone's personal computer between your PC and the the atatckers (compromised computers  are usually referred to as a zombie in this context).

Get the point yet????

So good luck with that.

What really matters in this lesson learned is that you were able to spot a discrepancy, and now you only smarter... but still a way long road ahead.

When reporting such incidents you should also use the appropriate reporting channels.

An open public Internet forum, such as this one, is already compromised with scammers, disgruntled Adobe user base, and more.

This is the wrong place to sort this out.

Scammers, trollers and whatever else, ARE  AND NOW also reading and becoming smarter as we think we are trying to help customers (who may also be a scammer or troller, etc)..

Software companies, your government, and the media all have failed and done an extremely poor job in educating consumers on how to watch out for these online  illegal activities.

Adobe, PayPal, your state police, and even the FBI, won't be of much help to you even if you follow all of the appropriate recommended reporting guidelines... you're pretty much on your own.

What is important here to note is, that you must immediately put a freeze on your credit report by  contacting all credit reporting agencies.

Use online services that anonymize your activities and help track your online reputation.

Do the same with your bank(s) so that they can monitor unsolicited attempts of any individual(s) or organizations that will continue to try and bill you.

Banks have other services also to alert you when, for example, something fishy happens with your account (to include alerting you personally and nobody else) when someone  pull  a credit report on you.

Change passwords in all accounts, social media, and email services, etc.

Moreover, since you already clicked on hyperlinks and downloaded stuff to your computer, I would even recommend to backup all of your data to an external hard drive, and scan that hard drive with a good antivrus/ antimalware software from; do it from different computer that is not hooked up to the Internet.

Disconnect your current personal computer from the Internet before repairing your hard drive.

Zeroize the hard drive completely (requires special technical knowledge or 3rd party software); then repartition hard drive and  re-install your operating system on it and install all of your programs from scratch; only hook this computer back to the Internet when all of this is done and resdy to receive updates.

As final step, transfer your to that computer the data that was saved into external hard drive and scanned by anti-virus.

[try67]

While being cautions is very important, there's no need to be paranoid. I think your advice goes a bit too far. If they indeed downloaded the installer from Adobe's website (as they claimed) there's no risk to their system. They got sold a fake serial number, which won't work, but that's it. Those scammers are long gone, off to cheat the next person. Unless the OP downloaded something from a link those scammers sent them (as opposed to the official Adobe website) or gave them access to their system, none of those steps are needed. They should report it to PayPal as a fraudulent transaction, and if they paid via a credit-card then to the bank and CC-company, but that's about it. Hopefully they could get their money back, and learn a valuable lesson for the future.

[ls_rbls]

Yes try67 ,  like Mike Tyson said once: "everyone has a plan until they get punch in the mouth".

The advice is not a bit too paranoid, is experience.

Let the user confirm that for us in a year or two from today, and we can redefine what exactly is paranoia in this context (not to be disrespectful to you).

I would like to hear this person story.

But hey  if the issue gets resolved in a less than a week,  happy for it.

NOTE:

I was not referring to the genuine software downloaded from Adobe, but the attachments as faked PDF invoices or clicking on remote images.

[Marieluise261188279cqv]

Quite my opinion. No paranoid panics! I don't glue myself on a chair at home to avoid traffic accidents. Keep the church in the village, as we use to say in Germany. Everybody can find out my name, address and telephone number by looking it up on my website which he finds by the domain in my emails. The only thing on top of that the fraudster gatherede from me was my special email address I only used for Paypal. To exclude any attempt of misusing it, I changed that address instantly after having detected the wrong key.

I have different sophisticated passwords for each account, am always very careful, never sail on dubious sex websites and unsocial media, don't use stolen software and open links only in emails that I can really trust. My antivirus programme is a good watchdog. I never ever had any issue with viruses, trojans & Cie, even though I use that grandfather version of Acrobat, and, beware! Lotus123 , ugh!

Falling for the line of a fraudulous seller doesn't mean one doesn't know how to keep one's PC clean.

Besides: Of course, I instantly opened a case in Paypal. After some very explicit official correspondence via paypal, (s)he is (or they are) about to refund me. If somebody misuses my trust, I become a tigress.

[Test Screen Name]

Messages sent in the forum are from noreply@mail.community.adobe.com in all cases. It should not be possible that you get a fake email from an Adobe address otherwise. The address you posted wasn't an Adobe address, it just had Adobe in the name chosen. 

[Marieluise261188279cqv]

Nice try:

A new assault on the verginity of my PC with a seemingly more reliable sender address; I am sure it's the same sender, because I had  once mentioned in our correspondence that I might be interested to buy audition at a similar interesting price. Therefore I post the warning here in this context.

Today, I found a nice email in my Thunderbird junk drawer (see below). The links disrobed in text mode turned out to be less nice:

*Jetzt herunterladen* 
<https://t-trg.email.adobe.com/r/?id=h86d35c4b,8ef7f552,84db1080&e=cDEand blablabla

Zur Online-Ansicht 
<https://t-trg.email.adobe.com/r/?id=h86d35c4b,8ef7f552,84db1081&e=cDE9JTQwN1FrV3A3bUhblablabla
So that was the goal he/she/it/they aimed at! The selling of the fake serial no. was just by-catch, or a try to gain trust.
But even without my whistleblowing Thunderbird I would have known right away. I could not name it, but such messages just smell bad.
 

[Moderator deleted private information. Please do not post private information like e-mails and phone numbers]

[Abambo]

Are you certain that you did not take the 7-day trial?

I would check in my account: http://accunt.adobe.com/plans. The posted links lead to adobe.com and that looks legit.

[Marieluise261188279cqv]

Yes, I had downloaded a trial version of Audition, but that was 4 days ago! I installed it, had a look on the interface, didn't like it at all, de-installed and cancelled the subscription. Half an hour before, I did the same with Premiere Pro, which was overkill for my strictly private needs. I had a look into my account. Both are cancelled. Why then Adobe sends me a message saying I had bought Audition? If Adobe servers suffer from Alzheimer's, they should act consistently. They did not send a message for Premiere! You see, all that together with that very strange link address and endless cypher procession, that is just suspicious, and I would still not click on those links.  😉

[try67]

This one actually does look genuine, especially if you recently got the Audition trial. How would the scammers know you did that? Just make sure the link points to a real adobe website (on the adobe.com domain).

[Marieluise261188279cqv]

Oups! Thanks for the deletings; I didn't think of it in my wrath. I would be still more pleased if anybody could confirm that the invoice is fake.

[Abambo · Accepted solution]

The invoice is fake. The e-mail on the invoice under billing contact is fake, so the whole invoice is fake. It was not Adobe that issued this invoice! And no reseller can issue an invoice for Adobe. You have your correct answer here: https://community.adobe.com/t5/acrobat-discussions/support-fraud/m-p/13221875#M380062.

[Marieluise261188279cqv]

Thanks for this statement, which helped to see the obvious. It is very useful for the dicsussion in my paypal case. The cheater has already noticeably folded.  😉