Alert! Paypal Fraud email

FYI - I just got this email that looked VERY much like an authentic paypal email. I didn't like the link address that it took me to, so I reported it. Sure enough it was a fraud.

SUBJECT: Acount Verification

It has come to our attention that your PayPal Billing Information records are out of date. That requires you to update the Billing Information.
Failure to update your records will result in account termination. Please update your records in maximum 24 hours. Once you have updated your account records, your PayPal session will not be interrupted and will continue as normal. Failure to update will result in cancellation of service, Terms of Service (TOS) violations or future billing problems.
Please click here to update your billing records.

(Link removed)

Thanks for using PayPal!

This PayPal notification was sent to your mailbox. Your PayPal account is set up to receive the PayPal Periodical newsletter and product updates when you create your account. To modify your notification preferences and unsubscribe, go to https://www.paypal.com/PREFS-NOTI and log in to your account. Changes to your preferences may take several days to be reflected in our mailings. Replies to this email will not be processed.

If you previously asked to be excluded from Providian product offerings and solicitations, they apologize for this e-mail. Every effort was made to ensure that you were excluded from this e-mail. If you do not wish to receive promotional e-mail from Providian, go to http://removeme.providian.com/.

Copyright© 2004 PayPal Inc. All rights reserved. Designated trademarks and brands are the property of their respective owners.

________________________________________________________
I sent it to paypal and this is how they replied:
Thank you for contacting PayPal.

We appreciate you bringing this suspicious email to our attention. We can confirm that the email you received was not sent to you by PayPal.
The website linked to this email is not a registered URL authorized or used by PayPal. We are currently investigating this incident fully.
Please do not enter any personal or financial information into this website.

Edit: Direct link to fraud site removed. Risk is not only in submission of your information, but visiting the site itself enables potential malicious scripts, browser hijacking, and IP identification. -Empath

Me too. I have received these off-and-on for a long time. I also get them from banks and other financial sites.

eBay is always quick to respond.

Chuck

Wow! That fraud link looks real. Even when you click the other tabs at the top, it takes you to the real Paypal sight. Unless you looked at the URL, you'd never know the difference.

I get several a day of this and other paypal scams.

The rule is never click the link in email. never ever /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

If you think your bank or paypal might actually have been trying to reach you, just switch to your browser, type www.paypal.com and signing from that.

Just never ever click the link in email, no matter how good it looks.

And now that I've told you all who already know that, I think I'll call up my mom and dad and remind them a couple of times too just for good measure.... Or perhaps just send them an email /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Report these attempts to STEAL from you by forwarding the email to:

[email protected]

FinPal

I get at least one of these a month and not just from GayPal clones, all sorts of spoof going on out there, masquerading as legitimate high street banks. I sometimes fill them in with abuse, in the shape of addresses like "42 Horsec*ck Blvd" and e-mail addresses like "wavemyd*[email protected]", etc.

Childish? Maybe, but I like to think it makes a point /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/evilgrin07.gif

I was getting about five of these a day. My ISP's spam filter is catching them now and most are infected with a virus. A tip for you is anything from a legit site like Ebay, PayPal, etc., will start the message with your name and not; "Dear Member" or whatever. Like James said, NEVER open an attachment or a link.

I have eBay (which also owns PayPal) Toolbar & Account Guard installed & it will tell me right away if any PayPal/eBay email linked website I'm on is legitimate or not & advises me not to go there.

I experienced same thing.
Just trash a mail which ask you to log in.
And I do virus scan twice a day.

Warren,

[ QUOTE ]
James S said:
If you think your bank or paypal might actually have been trying to reach you, just switch to your browser, type www.paypal.com and signing from that.


[/ QUOTE ]

I type https://www.paypal.com - especially the https:// part, which forces my browser into Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) mode..

Just making doubly sure. It's my money, after all. At least until CPF gets to it /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crackup.gif

I would still report it to [email protected]

If you do not, the con artists are free to attempt to steal from others.

Many must be replying or they would not be trying the scam. Some will fall victim to the vandals.

Report it and let PayPal /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/twakfl.gif 'em. At least, that way, there will be one less crook out there.

Fin

I reported it to paypal twice BEFORE I posted this message.

I'm pretty savvy when it comes to computers and such and this little scam wasn't going to get by me, but I just wanted all CPF'rs to know because this little scam would have definately gotten some people I know. It is the sneakiest one I've seen yet.

I haven't had problems since I eradicated a browser hijack thru IE called optimizer. Since them I have 2 Virus programs and 3 Spyware programs loaded on my 'puter and I use the Firefox browser.

They are getting more crafty every day!

Yeah, I got a PayPal scam email last week.

Thing is, no matter how good they look, there is always some small error. The email sent to me had many spelling errors.

Another clue is to enable headers. That will show who sent the email, unless spoofed. My header did not have a PayPal.com in it.

Another clue is that if the cursor is moved over the hyperlink, it will give an address other than PayPal.com.

I even got a scam PayPal email before even had a PayPal account. That one was easy.

I think that they can even be reported to the FBI.

Fin

i used to report them, but I got 6 of them yesterday, and 4 already today. I don't have time. Mostly they are the same one I got yesterday.