[SCAM] Is this paypal e-mail legit?

R

rumblebear

CAGiversary!
Don't think anyone posted this type of e-mails yet, so here it goes:



e-mail subject: *******@*****.com - PayPal account limited

Dear *****@****.com,

We recently reviewed your account, and suspect that your PayPal account may
have been accessed by an unauthorized third party. Protecting the security
of your account and of the PayPal network is our primary concern.
Therefore, as a prevention measure, we have temporarely limited access to
sensitive PayPal account features.
Please click on the link below to confirm your information:

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_login-run

For more information about how to protect your account, please visit
PayPal's Security Center, accessible via the "Security Center" link located
at the bottom of each page of the PayPal website.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, and appreciate your
assistance in helping us maintain the integrity of the entire PayPal
system. Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.



Sincerely,

The PayPal Fraud Management Team




Please do not reply to this e-mail. Mail sent to this address cannot be answered. For assistance, log in to your PayPal account and choose the "Help" link in the header of any page.
Copyright?2004 PayPal, Inc. All rights reserved. Designated trademarks and brands are the property of their respective owners.
------------------------------

the link seems legit. When I go to the link address they provided I have to enter my account name and p/w. Also I don't know what features they limited so I can't test to tell if my account are indeed limited.
 
It's a trap!

Seriously, it looks legitimate, but I wouldn't trust email notifcations like this anyway.

If you have any serious reservations go directly to the paypal site. Don't use the link. Then log in and check your account. It should ask you to update information automatically. Or go to the security center from there. If it doesn't, check to see if there was any suspicious activity. Then change your password just to be safe.
 
Somebody else got a paypal email similar to that one.
There is a possiblity that you might have a key logger installed on your comp and even going to the sight legitimately they can still record your id and password. just be careful.
 
This is definitely a scam. Don't click on the link or enter your ID and password--if you do, someone will get your information and start using it.

Did you notice the word 'temporarely' in that email? It is pretty easy to spot these scams just by looking for poor grammar or misspellings.
 
I would run virusscan,adaware, and spybot once on your comp to see if you have any wierd stuff. I hear you dont have to actually download some of those viruses to be infected, just as long as you visit or read something that has them imbedded in the code.
 
That's the best trick - when you get these emails, hover your cursor over the link and look at what the link actually is on the bottom of the screen. Don't trust it even if it looks legit (as someone else said, just go direct to the paypal site yourself, don't use the email link), but most of the time it'll be really obviously fake, like just an IP address. This scam is available in lots of flavors. I get ones talking about my Citibank account... of course, I don't HAVE a citibank account.
 
NEVER, NEVER, EVER click on a link in an email that claims to be from a site that handles money and would allowed somebody who phished your username and password to rip you off.

I get about thirty of these a day, including from banks where I've never had any kind of account. Looking at the raw source text of the email always reveals the link to lead to somewhere very much other than the claimed source, typically somewhere in Asia or Eastern Europe.

If any such site actually needs you to do something to your account they will send you a plain text email and expect you to get to the site and log in on your own. At this time the server will give you any pending messages if there is a real need.
 
I always get fake ebay messages.
You can contact Paypal themselves. Never click on hyperlinks in emails.

Go to paypal manually by entering the website in the address window.
 
[quote name='jamul']That's the best trick - when you get these emails, hover your cursor over the link and look at what the link actually is on the bottom of the screen. Don't trust it even if it looks legit (as someone else said, just go direct to the paypal site yourself, don't use the email link), but most of the time it'll be really obviously fake, like just an IP address. This scam is available in lots of flavors. I get ones talking about my Citibank account... of course, I don't HAVE a citibank account.[/quote]

No, that doesn't necessarily protect you, since scripts can change the status line text.

You want to right-click, do something like "copy link location", then paste it somewhere (like the address bar) and inspect it.
 
The dear part of the email gives away the fact that it's a fake. Paypal specifically states that they will always address you in the emails they send by the name you provide them. Other than that here's the listing of things they mentioned in an email to me that I saved for detecting fake messages sent in their name:

1 Safely access your PayPal account by opening up a new web browser (e.g. Internet Explorer or Netscape) and type in the following: https://www.paypal.com/


2 Never give out information in an email; PayPal will not ask you to provide personal information such as your password, social security number, bank account and credit card numbers


3 Do not download attachments, software updates, or any application to your computer via a link you received in an email; PayPal will not ask you to download anything for your account to work


4 Choose a unique password and change it every 30-60 days

If you want, you can report this fake email to them at spoof AT paypalDOTcom, replacing the AT and DOT with their appropriate characters
 
If you have a business account(one that takes credit cards) Then they go by your business name, not by your email address.
 
the email does look legit, but that doesnt mean its safe. the link might require to do a simple thing such as signing in, but instead of signing in, your username/password will get sent to someone else for their own personal use

the only safe thing to do is to just go to www.paypal.com directly. clicking on links in emails can be dangerous (especially if you have IE), since the address can be easily spoofed.

and when i say spoofed i dont mean like this: www.cheapassgamer.com. but this is how many phishers spoof links in emails: http://www.cheapassgamer.com

people that click on that second link while using an unpatched version of internet explorer would see cheapassgamer.com link in the status bar and even the address bar after the link is clicked on, but they will be taken to paypal.com. if you are taken to cheapassgamer.com or get a page cannot be displayed screen, then you are safe. but if you are running IE that isn't patched, go here to get a quick and easy fix
 
it looks good

I have gotten something like that but I never did anything because when I signed into my account I could do everything I could before
 
Hmm, I just got one from "Paypal", on an account that's been closed for 3 years. Complete with misspellings and incorrect sentance structure. Asking me to click the direct link to reinput all my personal info otherwise my account will be deleted. I wouldn't click on any direct link through any email from any company asking me to verify all my credit card and personal info. Very dangerous. If you must, go directly to the site without using any links yo update any info.
 
i just looked at your email again and i noticed something that shows that the email is fake

paypal never says "Dear [email protected]", they ALWAYS address you by your first and last name (or your business name).

remember this in the future. and forward this and all other suspicious and fake paypal emails to [email protected]
 
[quote name='Explosion']i just looked at your email again and i noticed something that shows that the email is fake

paypal never says "Dear [email protected]", they ALWAYS address you by your first and last name (or your business name).

remember this in the future. and forward this and all other suspicious and fake paypal emails to [email protected][/quote]

yes forward it 2 [email protected] I get a bunch of spoof emails but most of mine go into my spam folder, so i know they are fake
 
I got the exact same email. Some time later I received an email from PayPal saying that a scam was going around diverting people to a fake address that looks like their site. And that it would be a good idea to log onto the PayPal site directly and change their password. I had no spyware or infections of any kind. I had saved the previous email, and I went back to click on it just to see where it took me. It had diverted me to an address that was just an IP number and the page was not found. So I guarantee that this is the same thing and you should report it.
 
Just go to the regular PayPal site, via the plain old URL. If there are any important messages about your account, they will appear on the site. Never ever trust links supplied for your convenience on any account that involves money.
 
ok thanks guys. Now I'm convinced that this e-mail was a scam. The link goes to http://207.68.162.250/cgi-bin/linkr...___action=http://completing.unusualperson.com .

The last line kinda makes it obvious the link is fake, but I didn't notice that cause the really stupid hotmail bar adds in extra lines into every single link. When I click on the link the link bar says https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_login-run instead of the actual address. Another suspicious thing I found was that the page did not have the hotmail bar (or whatever that annoying separate top window is called) even though it was opened from hotmail. Clever disguise. Pretty lame how convincing fake e-mails can become these days =(
 
it seems real but I got one of these when I started accesing my account from work but the difference they never said

dear ************@*******.com

they went by my name.

so I would play it safe and call it fake
 
Yes it happens hackers send such stupid mail like your account looked or confirm your order. even i received many fraud paypal emails asking me to confirm confirm money transaction . i noticed that there are similair stories on aboutpaypal.org" you should visit there for more information .
 
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