paypal scam or just plain spam?

fracmeister

fracmeister

Petroleum Engineer
Joined
May 26, 1999
Messages
1,686
My ISP blocked delivery so I am assuming the attachment was infected -- but the email I got said "Dear PayPal member,

We regret to inform you that your account is about to be expired in next five business days. To avoid suspension of your account you have to reactivate it by providing us with your personal information.

To update your personal profile and continue using PayPal services you have to run the attached application to this email. Just run it and follow the instructions.

IMPORTANT! If you ignore this alert, your account will be suspended in next five business days and you will not be able to use PayPal anymore.

Thank you for using PayPal."

I can only imagine someone falling for it. Just FYI.
 
Wow, this one looks like a way to sneak a virus into your computer. There is another Paypal scam happening right now as well. In this one you are asked to send a return email that includes your Credit Card number. People, BE CAREFUL!
 
It's not just payPal. I got one a while ago purporting to be from my ISP itself. I reported it to them, and shortly thereafter we got a notice from them about these scams.
 
There are so many scams similiar to the one you mentioned about PayPal. There were scams for Yahoo and Ebay to name a few others. But I guess that there are so many people out there that fall for them.
 
The email that you all recieved contains a virus. It is not a scam per se. Opening the email and clicking on the link will open the W32.Mimail.J.mm worm.

Subject: Virus Alert


Our Anti-Virus software company, Symantec, has issued a security alert for W32.Mimail.J.mm computer worm. This worm attempts to steal personal information and displays a series of forms that ask users to enter their credit card information that is saved and e-mail to several addresses


The e-mail infected by worm has following characteristics:

______________________

From: Do_Not_Reply@\paypal.com
Subject: IMPORTANT <random string of characters>
Attachment: Paypal

Message:
Dear PayPal member,

We regret to inform you that your account is about to be expired in next five business days. To avoid suspension of your account you have to reactivate it by providing us with your personal information.
To update your personal profile and continue using PayPal services you have to run the attached application to this email. Just run it and follow the instructions.
IMPORTANT! If you ignore this alert, your account will be suspended in next five business days and you will not be able to use PayPal anymore.
Thank you for using PayPal.

My wife's company issues virus alerts on a regular basis and I am constantly updated as to new viruses out there.
 
This particular spam was mentioned on the news the other day-if you follow the directions you will be asked to provide your SS#-pasword-credit card info-in short keys to your financial bank.
 
There are a million and one scams out there and new ones every day. Some are just straight out scams, some are meant to introduce a virus or a trojan to provide a back door into your computer and do all sorts of nasty stuff. Spammers use these to send their crap via your computer so they can bypass RBL blocks and suchlike.

The only safe way to go is regard anything that looks a little strange as definitely something nasty. Delete it immediately or at the very least do some checking before you open any attachments. Also make sure you have some good anti virus software on your computer that is updated daily. It's also a very good idea to have a personal firewall installed nd if you're a really suspicious bastard like me you'll have spyware checking utilities and cookie cleaners installed too.

I can't imagine that ANY reputable business is going to ask you to send them your password by email. Just don't do it.
 
Originally posted by Gollnick
DANGER, DANGER, Will Rogers: Major scam!
Click to expand...

It's Will Robinson, not Will Rogers, Space Kid, Cowboy.

BTW that's one worm virus you don't want to down load, it took me all week to get rid of it, it gets into everything, not to mention that it disables your antivirus software opening you up to a whole mess of problems.
 
This is a real scam, and it is designed to take your $$, not just send you a virus.

I know someone who almost fell for it. When it comes in your inbox, it has all the paypal logos, information, and such; it looks very authentic from what she says. When you fill out the info, it asks for a checking account # and a pin #. Obviously the person I know didn't send them that, but if she would have, she would have been cleaned out I am sure!

Scary stuff!
 
It's Will Robinson, not Will Rogers, Space Kid, Cowboy.
Click to expand...

Mine's the cowboy humorist/author version.

And I've seen this same scam run with Visa and Mastercard logos too.

The goal is to get you to go to their sham website and enter all of your personal information, account numbers, bank information, social security number, date of birth, other's maiden name, etc. Basically, you hand them your identity on the proverbial silver platter. It's identity theft made easy.
 
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