Ebay Sale/Online Banking Advice
 

I have recently sold an old phone on eBay and it was bought my a person in Italy...the email came through in fairly good english saying could I post ASAP, package fairly well etc and not to leave any feedback as he/she wanted to re-sell the item on eBay Italy as phone are more expensive over there. No real problems, they have already paid via paypal but when he/she sends me emails they have an attachment called file.txt and is 1kB in size anyoen got any idea what this attachment could be?

This then lead me to thinking about online banking...I use it without thinking really but if your account is drained due to someone getting your details from you using online banking do you get your money back? Do you have to have anti-virus etc installed (I do already but I use the free ones) for them to refund, wghat are the kind of conditions?

Sorry for the essay,
Andy

Re: Ebay Sale/Online Banking Advice
 

No idea but all I can say is if you are in doubt don't open the attachment.

As long as she has sent you an email and you can read the body of the file you are not missing anything by not opening the txt file.

Sometimes if companies have a header on their email (like Lotus Notes use) incorporating their logo or wording they come through as an attached file, so it could be simply that - but I wouldnt open if I was you.

Re: Ebay Sale/Online Banking Advice
 

a .txt attachment will be fine. You machine will not be able to "run" a txt file.

extensions to watch out for include, but are not limited to:

.vbs
.js
.exe

I get some text attachments when the email comes from, I THINK, a server with different settings than my server may allow i.e. html/rft email messages. I stand to be corrected on this point!

But if you're not expecting an email it always pays to be paranoid. The maxim, "I may be paranoid but am I paranoid enough" should apply to anything remotely suspicious ont'web.

Re: Ebay Sale/Online Banking Advice
 

If you have taken reasonable care, I believe all the banks would reimburse you for fraud. Ask Northy.