Many people hesitate to make on-line purchases because of the epidemic of identity theft. It's a valid concern, and one that Moon Maven Publications shares. To protect you, we've taken a number of precautions, including the use of firewalls and Spybot to keep our records secure. We do not share your email address with anyone. Our secure shopping cart is by PayPal, a well-established company with powerful security measures that you can read about at their Security Center before creating an account with them. How PayPal works is that you use your already-existing credit card to charge your purchases, so long as you have one of the types of cards shown below.

If you'd prefer not to order on line, write to us to arrange to pay by check. (The downside is that the process of paying by check takes at least a week, whereas when you buy on line, you can have your books today.)

After working with PayPal for more than two years, we have full confidence in the company itself. However, there are a variety of mass mailing scams that purport to come from PayPal, major credit card companies, banks and other financial institutions that you should be aware of. Called phishing (pronounced “fishing”) these are fraudulent emails that request or initiate a scam to get sensitive personal information. They lead to spoof sites; that is, to fraudulent sites that look exactly like well-known websites. Below, for your protection, are ways to spot these fakes.

How to Recognize Fraudulent Emails

Below are examples of fraudulent emails that people have received from identity thieves, claiming to be from PayPal. The thieves have captured and counterfeited certain graphics from the PayPal website, so you might easily assume the emails are real. They also have a fake email address, like security@paypal.com--an email address that actually goes nowhere and simply bounces back to you if you use it. Reading them, you can see how slick they are--and how threateningly authoritarian. The language is calculated to frighten you enough that you forget safety precautions:

       a threat to suspend your account if you don't verify your banking information.
       a notice that your account has been locked down because you violated their policies.

Other scare tactics include emails that warn you that a suspicious charge has been made on your account or that give you a phony receipt for a purchse they claim you made. Here's an example--guaranteed to scare you into unwise and hasty action if you recieve it. Be especially aware not to click on the part that says, "Save my information:

       A fake charge on your account.

The dangerous part of these types of emails is a demand for banking information, which will include your account number, social security number, and pass words. For instance, it may say:

"In order to safeguard your account, we require that you confirm your banking details. To help speed up this process, please access the following link so we can complete the verification of your PayPal Account."

UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES should you click on a link like that and give out private information in response to any purported communication from PayPal, your credit card companies, or your bank. If the notice contains a link of any kind, it is a fraud. Precisely because of concerns about identity theft, an email from a reputable financial company will warn you NOT to follow a link. These links lead to fake sites with counterfeit graphics that look exactly like the real company.

There are identity theft prevention pages on the websites of most reputable financial institutions, and they will tell you not to follow such links. Instead open up a new browser window and go to the front page of the company's web site, signing in with your secure password, and contact the security division of the company. Read their identity theft pages carefully for more hints on how to prevent identity theft. PayPal's Security Center is an excellent example, and you should read their materials if you already have or are about to open an account there.

We hope you're reassured that we're taking solid measures to make you safe in ordering our books online, but your best defense is vigilance and paying attention to your instincts if something is telling you to beware. We would ask that if you order from us and subsequently recieve a communication like the ones above, contact their security department to ask whether there is a genuine problem with your account. Forward a copy to spoof@paypal.com so that they can keep track of the newest and slickest cons and warn others who may be recieving them. Please also forward a copy to us. If it's a new one, we'll post it on this page to warn other customers! YOU BETCHA!

Identity Theft Prevention Reources

Here are some good identity theft resources. If you know of other good non-commercial sites, we'd appreciate hearing of them.

FTC.gov is an official goverment site for consumer affairs, but has a library of materials, including information on various state and federal laws.
Colorado's Attorney General has numerous information pieces about ID theft.
California State's Office of Privacy Protection has extensive information on ID theft.
Identitythef.org is partly commercial but contains valuable advice for those who wish to prevent ID theft and those who have already been victims.

This page is a creation of Donna Cunningham's Word of Mouth Web Design The layers of this treatment are based on stained glass from the exceptional collection by Kokomo Opalescent Glass. Graphic images from Clipart.com.