Just a quick PayPal warning-Phishing alert.

Received two e-mail messages, supposedly from PP ( looked Very Real) about possible unauthorized access tries, and asking me to reply.
Checked with PayPal (my own address for them)-
The request was bogus-folks are "phishing" and they are looking very legitimate-just a heads up.
The tornado missed us by a few miles and our friends by one block!
scary!

Dont forget to forward those emails to spoof@paypal.com

Glad you dodged both of those storms!
sidney

HI, already forwarded them-both to spoof and to my internet provider; also closed my account. I don't need it or the hassle involved at this time.
Would like to smack those folks. All that computer skill and they do nothing positive with it..go figure.

I get those emails constantly at least 3 or 4 a day pretending to be paypal or ebay. I cant close my account because ebay is a source of income for me, but I'm glad you did. I think paypal needs to do something (I am not knowledgable enough to know what exactly they can do) but maybe if people stop doing business with them, they might think about cracking down. Did you let paypal know why you closed your account?
I'd like to do more than smack those people who spend all their time trying to steal other peoples id's!

Marcia I am so glad you checked it out before you replyed. That could have been a disaster had you replyed and they might have gotten personal info from you or your computer. I never reply to any email that asks for any personal info or to "update" your account. Those are always bogus.

I think removing the fingers of those who are doing these scams is too sweet.

Hi, I did let PayPal know; they just wanted to let me know that they would be So happy to give me a new account...
We can go with Lani, and give those folks a whacking up side the head..then make them weed and water our gardens, pick up the dog poop and thats just to start!!!!

Hey Rachael , Just so you know there is absolutely nothing paypal can do about it. This kind of scam is done by masking the address and using a fake one. I know it sounds odd because its coming from @paypal.com but the truth is its not and is just masked and most of these scams came from servers in countries that have loose or no laws about this kinda stuff. Best thing to do is remember a short long distance phone call to any company can clear up anything. Paypal E-bay Your Bank Microsoft Norton or any other company of repute will not randomly email you for info as they are big companies and can afford the money it costs to phone you if they need to.=)

Like Westocast73 dayid, there's not a lot they can do to crack down, other than pursuing those who send the spoofs and prosecuting them. Problem is, many are outside of the US and hard to trace.

One big thing to remember is that no major company is going to send a general "Dear customer" e-mail and then ask for your personal info at their site. They should use your entire name as is on account with them, at the least.

If you hover your mouse over the links in these phishing mails, you'll see in your browser or e-mail program's status bar (at the bottom of your window) that the URL actually points to is something other than the official site. It may be something similar, like a series of numbers followed by /ebay or /paypal. It may also be what's called a subdomain at another site, something like paypal.payments.com or ebay.ebaypayment.com.

I was phished a couple years ago. I did click on the link but never gave any info at that site. I realized I shouldn't be doing that and immediately clicked off. They got ahold of something anyway in that split second I was there because within a month someone was charging on my credit card. In the end my credit card company fixed things for me but from then on the rule is DO NOT CLICK ON ANY LINKS SENT BY ANY PLACE................

I have seen phishing emails for Ebay, PayPal, banks and even American Express. It is becoming more common throughout the internet. You always MUST BE LEERY of any of these requests. You need to pay more attention to what people here are telling you and the warnings put out by anyone anywhere. Don't go through life thinking this can't happen to you. IT CAN AND DOES!!!!

I'm not giving up my cyber life, I just can't do it, but I still hold firm with the rule "Do not talk to strangers".

Molly

Exactly - you can't let these people control your life, you just have to be alert & careful.

PayPal recently sent me an e-mail specifically stating that they do NOT EVER send out e-mails asking people to re-verify their accounts. Period.

What's ironic is, PayPal does on occasion. My main credit card on file for them expired, and they did send me an e-mail asking me to update it. But the e-mail said to go to my browser's address line and manually type in https: etc. to get there.

Yes - but that's different. If it's legit they should instruct you to manually go to their website - not use a "link" in the e-mail.

They have sent links as well, but the e-mails also have my complete name in them, as registered with their site. But you should always login manually to be safe.

I agree. Even if I thought the e-mail was legit, I'd always log on manually then use a link. Better safe than sorry.