Warning - Scam targeting the bead community

Normally I don't pass these things on, but since I was almost a victim myself today, I thought I better say something. Especially since this scam is specifically targeting the beading and jewelry community!

There's a vendor out there called HHH Enterprises. Now, they are a perfectly legitmate vendor and I have bought from them in the past. Nothing wrong with them and, in fact, they are as much a victim of this scam as anyone else.

Today, in my e-mail box, I received a message saying it was a confirmation of my order with HHH. Now, I may be something of a ditzy blonde, but I KNOW I didn't place an order with them recently.

In the body of the e-mail (which was addressed to me by first and last name) there's a link that says "click here to cancel order." NORMALLY, I don't click on these things - being suspicious by nature, but I wanted to investigate completely as I suspected something was odd.

The link took me to a page which looks IDENTICAL to the regular HHH home page and all it wants is EVERY BIT OF MY PERSONAL INFORMATION INCLUDING CREDIT CARD # so they can "identify" my order and cancel it.

Needless to say, I did not provide the information. Here's the interesting part - when I closed that window and went to forward the bogus e-mail to HHH so I could report it to them - the e-mail disappeared. Thus leaving no proof to send to the vendor.

I went to the legitimate HHH website, got their phone number and called them. They are aware of the scam and are being unfairly hurt by it.

I hope everyone will spread the word on this - not only do I not want anyone else to get accidentally caught up in this, but I want to help preserve HHH's reputation.

Okay, back to your regularly scheduled viewing.

KJ