Paypal problem

Today I got 2 messages from paypal. Subject: Your bank accepted your electronic funds transfer.
It said: You recently attempted to transfer funds fro your bank account to your paypal account.
Your bank has accepted the funds transfer. We charged your credit card to cover payment to whestlers@comcast.net ($526) For current info and such, click here, which I did and its not paypal. They have assigned me a new address to contact them in the second email. It all looked so official, I did put in my email address and password and they wanted my credit card number as they are doing a spot check, and I was chosen. By then I was suspicious. I called paypal and they said to forward the letters, you know, it was impossible to forward them? It dawned on me to delete everything after paypal.com and it worked. Now I am worried that they have my email address and password. Can they do anything with that of can I change password.
Anyone else run into sometahing like this? It's my first experience as you can tell!.

This message was edited Jan 26, 2006 6:56 PM

If you are interested, please contact me privately via D-mail and I will give you my home phone number to call me. From there I will give you some information that you might want to mull over or discuss with friends. I am so sorry this happened to you.
Lauren

I'm so sorry this happened to you.

If you log into the "real" PayPal" directly, they tell you right up front that they will NEVER EVER ask you for your e-mail address, password, bank, or credit card info outside of the actual "real" PayPal site. NEVER; regardless of how "official" the request appears.

You have definite reason to be concerned - not only for giving out your e-mail address & PayPal password, but also your bank/credit card info. My advice to you would be to immediately cancel that credit card & close that bank account, as well as change your e-mail address & PayPal password. This needs to be done asap.

NEVER EVER give any of this information out via e-mail TO ANYONE. The only time this information should be used is when you are paying for something via a secure & verified site.

Ok, thanks, I have done the above, in fact I got an email from Paypal verifying that I changed my password. They sent me something telling me all the security details, etc, but now I know what to expect! These computers are fraught with dangers!!! Doris

Lauren, I will get back to you later, I've go a horrible case of the flu and am just miserable at this time. I just went on line to make sure nothing else came up on my email. thanks again, everyone.

That darn flu knocked me on my rear too. I feel for you. It's going around our area big time. I live a little bit north of you. Quickie comment, neither eBay or PayPal will ever send you anything with an attachment. There is a way to check out who the "real" sender of an e-mail is before you open it if you have a decent e-mail client. Also too, disable the preview screen to your e-mail. Best to be able to look at a sender to see if you recognize them or not without having to open up an e-mail that may have a .exe embedded in it. Don't panic Doris, we've all fallen for that scam at one time or another. Live and learn. When you feel better, I'll give you the links to some on line heuristic scanners that are free to give you some piece of mind. Sleep tight little you. Hope you're feeling better soon.

the quickest and easiest way to check out a fraudulent email is to forward it to spoof@paypal.com or spoof@ebay.com. i do this countless times. i always get an email back quickly telling me it was not sent by them. never open that stuff, never give them anything!!! sorry for your troubles.

I got two messages last summer/fall claiming to be from paypal. They said there was suspicious activity in my account. I have never used paypal myself and don't know for sure if my wife had ever used it quite some time before or not. They said that if it wasn't straightened out the account would be frozen...welll good then. I couldn't get on the link supplied anyway and let it go.

DJM,

Scam artists get more and more sophisticated. My wife and I have had several of those fake PayPal messages, and quite a few similar fake eBay ones.

We sell antiques on line at a virtual antique mall, and one time had a feller say he wanted to buy one of our items that sold for about $250 dollars, but he was sending us a $2500 dollar cashier's check. Said he owed some guy money in another country at another address, and that we were to cash the cashier's check as soon as possible, send the item to one address, and the remainder of the money to the friend to whom he owed money.

We were thinking "Huh? We're not a bank. What does this guy think, anyway?"

Thing was, the cashier's check looked authentic. It was several different colors, and seemed very professionally done. We took it to our bank for verification and they told us it was definitely bogus.

We heard about another woman in the area who had a similar thing happen, but she tried to deposit the check, and she was arrested and handcuffed! Poor lady.

Oh nooooooooo, please tell me you didn't send that person the antiques after you received the money order.

I just heard of another scam that we all should be aware of and not fall into the trap.

You may receive a phone call from what sounds like your credit card company asking you to verify that you recently made a large purchase. No matter what you say they'll say that in order to verify you are the right person they need the code on the back of your card. DO NOT DO IT. Your credit card companies have all the digits, front and back! This is a fraud.

Often companies will call to verify large purchases but they will not ask for the numbers on the back (or front like AM EX) of the card.

If I were you, I'd change my password. Emails like that are designed specifically to get your password so THEY can change the password and make your account their own. Then you're locked out of your own account.

A general rule is, never go to paypal or Ebay from a link inside an unsolicited email you receive. Instead, bring up a new browser and type in www.paypal.com or www.ebay.com. From there, you can check your account safely.

It's also a good idea to regularly change your password on any accounts that contain credit card, bank account or social security numbers.

i got all those messages that everyone else is talking about also. but djm906 you said you called paypal? is there a telephone number for these people? how bout for ebay? i am forever frustrated with both services(?) because there are NO humans.

Agreed: no humans and difficult to contact. I did find a way but it was so long ago I can't remember.

Aha! Something like "report fraud". I know it had the word "fraud" in it. You get a quick standard reply and then more information via email.

spoof@paypal.com is the address to send any questionable e-mails to. If you can, include the full message headers when you do this. Look in your e-mail program for an option like VIEW > COMPLETE HEADERS and select that before you click the forward button.

I had copied what they sent me. It's long but it should help:

Dear Arlene Ryan,

Thank you for bringing this possibly fraudulent website/email to our
attention. Please be sure the following is included:

1. A copy of the suspicious email that was received

2. If the email contained a link to a website, the link that was
included

3. The email address of the person who sent the suspicious email

Rest assured, PayPal will take immediate and appropriate action on the
matter. If you have surrendered financial information or password
information to the website/email, report this to your financial
institutions, and immediately change your passwords and secret answers.
If you find any unauthorized changes on any account, report the
occurrence immediately!

To file a claim of Unauthorized Use of Your PayPal Account, click here:
https://www.paypal.com/wf/f=sa_unauth

If you can no longer access your PayPal account, use the following
instructions*. If you still cannot access your PayPal account after
following these instructions, click here:
https://www.paypal.com/ewf/f=sa_unauth

If you have sent a payment, but believe the seller to be fraudulent, or
have not received product, please log in to your PayPal account, click
'Security Center', click the 'Buyer Complaint Process' and follow the
instructions. DO NOT reply to this email as no one is assigned to
respond to this automatic email.

If this is a PayPal transaction showing up on your Credit Card or Bank
Statement that is NOT on your PayPal Account, please call 1-402-935-7733
and request to be transferred to Resolution Services. Please note, only
reports of stolen Credit Cards and stolen Bank Accounts will be handled
by phone. All other reports will only be acted on if emailed via
appropriate webform. DO NOT reply to this email as no one is assigned to
respond to this automatic email.

If your problem is not one of the above scenarios, then please contact
us at https://www.paypal.com/wf/f=default or
https://www.paypal.com/ewf/f=default.

*We have developed a process by which you can regain access to your
PayPal account by confirming some of the information you gave when
registering for your account. Please follow the instructions below,
which will guide you through the rest of the process.

1. Visit https://www.paypal.com/ and click the 'Forget Your Password?'
link located under the box provided (you may have to first click a 'Log
In' button if our system does not recognize the computer you are using)

2. On the page that appears, enter your email address in the box
provided and click 'Submit'. The email address entered must be an email
address you have added to your PayPal account

3. An email containing a hypertext link along with additional
instructions will be automatically sent to the email address you entered
in Step 2. Click the link

4. You will be asked to verify your identity by answering questions
based on your account information

* Please note that if you are requested to answer your Security
Questions to verify your identity, both questions must be answered

5. Click 'Submit'

Once you have successfully verified your identity, you can change your
password and access your account immediately. We suggest that you also
review your Profile information and make any necessary updates.

If you cannot verify your identity, click the 'fax information' link on
the 'Verify Your Identity' page for further instructions to recover your
password.

**To change either your password or your security questions, please
follow the instructions below:

1. Click https://www.paypal.com/PW-PROF or copy and paste the entire
link into the address bar

2. Select either 'Password' or 'Security Question' and click the
'Edit' button

3. You may be asked to confirm ownership of the account by answering
questions based on your account information

4. Click 'Submit'

5. Type your current password in the 'Current Password' box, either
type your new password into the 'New Password' and 'Retype Password'
boxes, or select your new security questions and enter the answers.
Please note, passwords are case sensitive and must be at least 8
characters. Also, make sure that your CAPS LOCK is not on when you set
your password

8. Click 'Save' to complete the change

To ensure your security, please utilize these habits when logging into
your PayPal account.

· Always check the URL shown in your browser window. PayPal-hosted
pages always begin with https://www.paypal.com/

· Additionally, if the URL begins with 'https' rather than 'http' this
shows you have a secure connection with PayPal

· Never enter a PayPal password into a page that does not begin with


PayPal and its representatives will NEVER ask you to reveal your
password. There are NO EXCEPTIONS to this policy. If anyone claiming to
work for PayPal asks for your password under any circumstances, by email
or by phone, please refuse and immediately contact us via webform
at https://www.paypal.com/wf/f=sa_pass.

Thank you for contacting PayPal.

If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us again.


This email is sent to you by the contracting entity to your User
Agreement, either PayPal Inc or PayPal (Europe) Limited. PayPal(Europe)
Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority
in the UK as an electronic money institution

I have a bank account I only keep a few dollars in I use for paypal. Never over 20.00. I can go on line to the bank and transfer from one
account to the other. I have a credit card on there right now that has been closed, but I just make sure I get to the bank before I send paypal.

As I no longer have credit cards I will try when mine comes up because of experation on the card, I am going to put in my Visa Debit card number for the same account. I use it as a credit card everywhere with out the pin number and it takes it right from my account. Again that way I will never lose more than 20.00.

Our bank has free checking with no minimum balance after you open it with 50.00 you can withdraw a few days later down to 3.00 if you want. I don't get the checks because it is strictly paypal and the only
catch is if you don't use it atleast 1 time within every 2 months it goes to 4.00 a month service fee. It also has 300.00 bounce protection for free if you ask for it.

I did this back when paypal first had trouble with people getting in and stealing. Oh and I also at that time put numbers before and after my password.

I have gotten those e-mail and I ignore them because I heard about them.

I am so sorry this happened. It is enough to make a person
physically ill worring or always trying to protact what is yours.
I get alot of supposed foreign e-mail saying they have heard of me and they are rich and their husband has died. They must get out of their country with their children but must wire the money in order to keep it safe from their government. It is usually millions of dollars.
They know they can trust me and will let me keep a couple million for doing it. Please send my bank tracking number and account number.

DO they actually believe I fell of the turnip truck yesterday? I may not be the smartest person in the world but this one is really out there.

Yes and we have all fallen for some scam in our life. I guess we fall for them because we weren't the ones being scammed, we would be the scammers. I am always getting things from norton saying someone just tried to put a trojan virus named bla on my computer. I just can't figure out for the life of me why people sit around trying to ruin our computers. I am glad I invested in it because my computer is old and
went out. But this one is my sons. I don't want his ruined, he is letting me use it because they live with her sister and they have one. He brought this one over before mine went out. Hopfully before he moves and takes it back I can get another one.

Blessings,
Sandy ^8^

Sandy, we do the same thing with two checking accounts; one's our internet account and one's our regular checking account. We transfer funds over to the internet account on an as-needed basis.

The only way anymore to watchout for ourselves. Isn't sad we have to be one step ahead? I am never ahead till it happens to me or someone else. I just can't think like a thief.

I still here things that blow me away.

See Gardenwife, Great minds. :o) LOL

Equil. No we did not ship the antique. Our radar was up immediately when the guy tried to use us like a bank. Thanks.

PayPal does have a phone number, or at least did the last time I checked. You have to look carefully for it, though.

It is ominous to me that there can be large corporations, like eBay that can get away with having no public phone number at all. It is bad enough having corporations in which no individual has to take responsibility for a catastrophe: EXXON or AMOCO spills 2000 billion gallons of oil in the Arctic and "the corporation" pretty much a slap on the wrist. Some huge corporation has an accident that kills 5,000 people in India, and "the corporation" merely apologizes and pays a relatively small fine.

And now it is getting to where us little folk can't even call a corporation and speak with anyone?

I don't like that at all!

Hey persevere, you will have D-Mail real soon!

I didn't get a chance to email you all for the interesting information. The end result was after I clicked on the "for more information, Click here". Next thing I knew, my entire machine was wiped out! Virus!
Had to have the entire thing rebuilt. Stopped the Paypal account and credit card still OK. I sure learned a lesson and feel confident I will not be taken in again! (hopefully).

Bless your heart.

I will never understand why there is people who want to ruin others stuff?
Sorry this happened to you.

Blessings,
Sandy ^8^