1  |   Order by index

Mar 10, 2005, 5:08pm

Many of us depend heavily on PayPal for online purchases and payments. Today
I received not one, but two fraudulent emails complete with the PayPal logo
and all their contact and security info. The give away was that I also
received one on another account never associated with PayPal. I contacted
PayPal and was told there is currently a rash of spoof emails being sent out
in the name of PayPal. Do NOT click on any links contained in an email from
PayPal unless the salutation says Dear 'Your Account Name' NOT Dear
PayPal User or Dear PayPal Member. If the email does not address you by
your account name the email is NOT from PayPal. However, they are very legit
looking and request personal account info that could enable the thieves to
wreak havoc on your credit card or bank account. Should you receive such an
email, do NOT click! Do a simple forward of the email to spoof.paypal.com
and then delete the email. Let's be careful out there! :)

Mar 10, 2005, 5:37pm

I got one to my email account which has no connection to PayPal
[View Quote]

Mar 10, 2005, 5:41pm

I received the same emails, good idea to post a warning to others :)

John Dough
www.Arcworld3D.com


[View Quote]

Mar 10, 2005, 7:36pm

i recieved one also and i clicked on the link. it looked just like the
paypal login but i didnt see where to put the info they asked so i closed
the browser. then decided to look again and its said page cannot be
displayed and the url on top was a completely different url so i called
paypal and they said it was someone trying to get account info so they had
me change my pw. luckily i didnt give out any info whew! i wasnt going to
anyway without calling them 1st.

[View Quote]

Mar 10, 2005, 7:41pm

Whenever I get one of those emails, there's always a chance it may be
legitimate. So instead of clicking on any links in the e-mail, I type in
paypal.com in my browser and log in to make sure there actually is something
that needs my attention.

Chris

[View Quote]

Mar 10, 2005, 8:39pm

This is old news. It is called "phishing" and it isn't limited to just
PayPal. People try to imitate eBay and other banks as well. A good idea
is to assume that a company already has your credit card number and
other important details on file. If they need it, they would most likely
call you via phone instead of send you an e-mail. Instead of clicking a
link in an e-mail, type the URL of the site (such as
https://www.paypal.com for PayPal) instead of clicking on the link in
the e-mail. Also, scan any and all e-mail attachments before you try to
open/execute them.

-Builderz

Mar 10, 2005, 8:52pm

ya i always do scan attachements. and i did have an idea that was fake. i
wasnt gonna put in any info untill i called 1st. i was just checking it out
befor i called.
[View Quote]

Mar 10, 2005, 9:25pm

It is pretty much common sense. If an email is asking for confirdential
information, it is 99.99% a spoof trying to steal your personal
information. If a company wants you to update your personal
information/payment information, they will ALWAYS display a screen AFTER
you log in through their website. So if you follow simple logic, then
you can avoid doing anything bad that will allow the people out there to
take advantage of your account(s). And like others have said, type the
urls out and don't click the links in the emails. If you didn't expect
the email to come, then it probably was not suppose to come.

[View Quote]

Mar 11, 2005, 1:40am

I hate to think this but, Since so many of us in AW received this email,
including me, today, I am thinking that some one in AW may be sending them
to people in AW they think or know have paypal to do business in AW.

Imagine

Mar 11, 2005, 1:46am

I sincerely doubt that. I think it is more likely that a goodly number of
ppl who use AW also use PayPal and thus got the scam letter, too. Those ppl
can crank out a few thousand scam letters a week. I've gotten about 4 of
them over the past few months.

~TS

[View Quote]

Mar 11, 2005, 4:08am

Also, as advised by Paypal, visit their site ONLY from https:// (note the
*s* for secure) so instead of going to http://paypal.com (<<< NOT SECURE) go
to https://paypal.com/ (again, note the *s*). It is also advized that if you
purchase something with a CC wait for the confirmation that the transaction
occured and then DELETE your CC from their site. You can reinstate next time
you buy, then again delete afterwards, etc ... don't leave CC info on their
site.

LNH



--

[View Quote]

Mar 11, 2005, 4:11am

Even paypal says to type in https not http alone. Never click the link in an
email but rather go directly to their site using https:// this is probably a
good idea for any banking or money handling site.

LNH


--

Mar 11, 2005, 9:12am

I dont thinks its just AW i called them and they said theres a rash of that
going on right now. and when they had me go to the pages to change my pw it
took forever for that page to load and she said because theres a lot of
traffic on it right now with ppl changeing their pws too.
[View Quote]

Mar 11, 2005, 9:20am

No, you don't get the scale of it.

They don't send out a few thousand a week, they send out a few MILLION a
week.

- Mark R

[View Quote]

Mar 11, 2005, 3:31pm

Imagine,

I've been receiving this sort of fraudulent emails (PayPal, eBay) for
months.

A few things were said already:

1) The real PayPal emails star with a greeting containing your account
name.

2) Links to PayPal always use the https:// protocol (secure), never
http://

3) The safest way is simply to log into your account using a browser,
not to click on a link in the email: type
https://www.paypal.com (don't forget the https)

4) Forward the fake emails to PayPal:
spoof at paypal.com

I use Eudora (paid version), and it comes up with warnings when you
hover the mouse over a link. If the hidden URL is different to the one
shown, or the URL starts with a dotted IP instead of a hostname, you
get a warning. This does help! But as a rule, NEVER click on a
linked URL in an email, unless you are expecting this email (for
example, when you subscribe to some trusted service, they send you a
confirmation request with a link... even so, check that the URL you
click is the one shown to you). This same attitude applies to
attachments.

This has nothing to do with AW customers being targetted, it is a
general nuisance!

Alex

[View Quote] >I hate to think this but, Since so many of us in AW received this email,
>including me, today, I am thinking that some one in AW may be sending them
>to people in AW they think or know have paypal to do business in AW.
>
>Imagine
>

Mar 11, 2005, 4:05pm

I like to go to the phishing sites and put in fake credit card info so they
send thier thieves to try and take out money and find the password and
account doesn't exist...lol
Maybe if everyone did this they would give up?


[View Quote]

Mar 11, 2005, 4:21pm

I don't think so, AlphaBP, the risks are just too high. Web pages can
contain malware, and by going to these pages you are actually
confirming that your email address exists. I'd rather not play with
fire :)

On 11 Mar 2005 13:05:30 -0500, "AlphaBit Phalpha"
[View Quote] >I like to go to the phishing sites and put in fake credit card info so they
>send thier thieves to try and take out money and find the password and
>account doesn't exist...lol
>Maybe if everyone did this they would give up?
>

Mar 11, 2005, 4:24pm

Good point XelaG,

I have nothing to lose so I take risks...lol
Anyways...maybe I will heed your advise going forward...thanks!


[View Quote]

Mar 11, 2005, 4:57pm

YESSSS I did this to the faux PayPay ppl. hehehehehe

[View Quote]

Mar 11, 2005, 7:22pm

It's best NOT to respond to this kind of email, nor any spam email for that
matter. If you don't respond they can't know your email is legitimate ... if
you do respond it's a dead giveaway that they have a correct email for you
:o/

LNH



--

[View Quote]

Mar 11, 2005, 8:30pm

Yawn. Old news.

Mar 15, 2005, 7:55am

ya, apart from what everyone else said, a much simpler way would be just to
ignore them, seeing how Paypal would not close your account for missing
information, as they are a bank, and so, would definatly take much better
care of your information anyway.
but anyway, just check the url. put your mouse ontop the link (don't click)
and check to see if it's a paypal.com url, and make sure it's not
www.paypla.com at some.other.url

-SWE

[View Quote]

1  |   Order by index