PayPal scam 6/23/05

Chiro75

Chiro75

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I checked my email this morning (I have 6-7 email accounts for business, personal, knives, etc) and I got an email from "Paypal" saying that there was weird activity on my account and they were upgrading me to "military encryption" and that I had to update and verify my account. I clicked the link, which took me to the url "www.paypal.com" and it looked exactly like Paypal. I filled in all my info, as well as credit card info, and then my browser, Safari, said "The certificate is expired on this site. It may be someone pretending to be the site you think you are on" or something to that effect. So, I did not send the info and got the hell out of there. I then went to Paypal and none of that crap came up. What tipped me off, too, is that email came through the email account that I do NOT use for Paypal, and gets mostly spam. Anyway, be careful because everything looks exactly the way it should. If my browser didn't alert me I would've sent my CC info to God only knows who. :grumpy: :eek:
 
I got one spoofed email almost every day.
PayPal and eBay do not ever send unsolicited mails asking foro info.
If you see any from a bank, it will be a phishing email wanting to steal your info.
Just delete them on sight. Don't even need to read them...
 
I have been getting one to two everyday too for the last couple days. I thought something was weird. I was actually coming on the forum now to post and ask if anyone else has had this. Thanks for the heads up.
 
howiesatwork said:
I got one spoofed email almost every day.
PayPal and eBay do not ever send unsolicited mails asking foro info.
If you see any from a bank, it will be a phishing email wanting to steal your info.
Just delete them on sight. Don't even need to read them...
Click to expand...

comman sense. It sucks this crap is going on, so blatently too, and there is nothing they (ebay/paypal can do about it. Ahhh the wonders of the internet. Glad you didnt get bit, thanks for spreading the word.
 
Yup! I have gotten about a dozen of those this month alone! They just keep sending them to me over and over. I also get those damn "I'm a Bank manager from Africa or India Asia and "So and so" left $10,000.0000 and I wish to have you send me your banking info so I can tranfer the funds to you. I will only take a small precentage " Blah, blah! I get those at least once a week too. NEVER EVER "update" any info. paypal has it all and if you do regular business thru them, they wouldn't need any updated info on you. If I could get my hands on just one of those spam scammers! Grrrr :mad:
 
One thing to remember about this guys, EBAY will NEVER ask for your password in an Email, if you get a message asking for information of this sort, delete it and also if Ebay writes you a letter they will use your REAL name, if it says "dear paypal member" or anything other than your REAL name, IT IS A SCAM.
 
This is the first one of these I've ever gotten. Glad I used my brain! :eek: How do these spamming a$sholes find out who has Paypal accounts, and how can they use www.paypal.com as a URL and have it still work???
 
Chiro75 said:
This is the first one of these I've ever gotten. Glad I used my brain! :eek: How do these spamming a$sholes find out who has Paypal accounts, and how can they use www.paypal.com as a URL and have it still work???
Click to expand...
They don't know if you have an account, they just send it blind to a bunch of email addresses they buy, then hope someone isn't paying attention and gives up their info...
Even if you send them an email with bogus info, they will know they have reached a viable address.
On the way a website looks... all the links and graphics can be legitimate, and will go where they state, EXCEPT that one Submit button that will send the info you enter to their special site to snatch up your info...
Just delete them without opening, or forward them to one of the spoof email collection addresses mentioned by silenthunterstudios.
 
howiesatwork said:
They don't know if you have an account, they just send it blind to a bunch of email addresses they buy, then hope someone isn't paying attention and gives up their info...
Even if you send them an email with bogus info, they will know they have reached a viable address.
On the way a website looks... all the links and graphics can be legitimate, and will go where they state, EXCEPT that one Submit button that will send the info you enter to their special site to snatch up your info...
Just delete them without opening, or forward them to one of the spoof email collection addresses mentioned by silenthunterstudios.
Click to expand...
Yup...I've received a couple of those emails myself, and what tipped me off that they were a scam is that I don't have a Paypal account.

Bastards... :grumpy:
 
Chiro75 said:
and how can they use www.paypal.com as a URL and have it still work???
Click to expand...
Quite easily. The link you see might READ as paypal.com but if you look what's behind the text at the real link it will be an IP number to the site the scammers have set up.

NEVER assume that a web address link will take you to where you think it's going and NEVER assume that any emails you get come from where you think they have. Email address spoofing is just as easy as web address masking.

Enjoy your Internet experience!
 
I receive these regularly. It is very good to make everyone aware of these scams because anyone could be fooled by one of these. If anyone fell all the way in they would be immediately relieved of their funds and identity. It is a sad commentary that today "you cannot believe what you see"! Thank you for ringing the alarm! :eek:
 
I get the often too. I ignore them. They are always something urgent about your account being unusable if you don't confirm your info and the like. I figure if it is legit, let them freeze my account until I use it again. Then I'll change it.
 
Chiro75 said:
This is the first one of these I've ever gotten. Glad I used my brain! :eek: How do these spamming a$sholes find out who has Paypal accounts, and how can they use www.paypal.com as a URL and have it still work???
Click to expand...

PayPal does not use http://www.paypal.com but https://www.paypal.com. You can also find where the link s redirected by clicking by right mouse button on the e-mail and selecting "View source". There in notepad you can see where the link is taking you. Also PP addresses all customers by their account name - not by just Dear PP member...

David
 
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