Fraudulent Paypal Emails

[tortoise]

Hi all :)

Yesterday we received an email from Paypal to our registered email address asking us to confirm whether or not we had purchased an item.

The email looked just like a Paypal one - but it wasn't. It was a fake one to try and access peoples details! The address it came from was secure@paypal.com


It asked us whether or not we had bought a "Brown and pink salsa dress" and gave the amount of 33 US Dollars. It said that by clicking below we could dispute the transaction.

We didn't click, but went to the Paypal site to check our transaction details. All was fine.

We then copied and pasted the email and forwarded it to Paypal who are now investigating.

Just a warning to all - check and recheck.

BE AWARE and Don't Click the DISPUTE TRANSACTION BUTTON

:angry:

[Eeyore]

We've had these and also the ones that say to update your bank details on the site - the site isn't Paypal of course!

We've also had quite a few (about 4 a week) supposedly via Ebay, from someone saying "I've bought so and so, when will I get it because I've paid so you'd better send it now or else" and there is a link (AOL won't let the link open as it's fraudulent) :(

So annoying, you have to be so so careful

[mazza]

It's ri******** isn't it?

I got spoof too a while ago so I reported it to ebay (cos it said you should on their website) .

I got a bit of a gobbledegook email back from them which is obviously automated so I still don't know if they did anything about it. Probably not... :rolleyes:

There was another message recently that said they had someone trying to hack into my ebay account using a certain IP no - that was nonsense too, but it sounded quite technical and alarming... :rolleyes:

I think the message is...never give any info out whatsoever!!! be very careful!!

[sp54]

I am new to Paypal, and have only just started selling on ebay. Yesterday I had an email from Paypal saying if I wanted to receive payment for something sold I had to 'upgrade' to a Premier account. I clicked it, and I appear to have received the payment, but the emails said I have to supply my bank details before they can verify the premier account. I had previously been buying without having to do this, and sold something else without having to do it.

So, as a naive newbie to Paypal, can anyone tell me if this is the norm, or am I just being thick??????

:help: :unsure:

[sassieb]

I too have had this but I deleted it as it went t my junkmail whereas all other "legit" emails from PayPal go striaght to my inbox.
:blink:
I have also had spoof ones for msn. An email was sent to me, well about 3 actually at different times, telling me that I need to do something or other ( cant remember) as until then I wouldnt be allowed to acess my msn addy. first thing I did was to sign into it,, everything was fine :) so I got in touch with MSN who investigated and managed , so they said, to shut the 3 different email accounts that the emails had come from. :thumbs:

Such a shame that you have to be extra vigilant these days in all things.
:(

[Eeyore]

I have a verified premier account, but the best way to check/upgrade, rather than following a link in an email, which could be fraudulent, log onto Paypal and check your account (I think there is a thing there where you can upgrade, sure that's how I did it) :)

If in doubt, you can also contact Paypal through their site, they are great at getting back to people IMO (when i verified my account, being in the UK, it wasn't easy as Paypal was predominantly a US site at first, and they were very helpful)

[smoo22]

Hi sp54

You can only receive payments made by Credit Card if you have a Premier account. If the buyer uses bank transfer, you don't need to upgrade, and you can make payments with just an ordinary Personal account, but you do have to offer all payment methods to be covered by their Protection Policies so if you're going to be selling quite a bit, or higher value items that people will want to use Credit Cards for, it's worth upgrading.

Just make sure you do this through their official site and don't get caught out by spammers (as above) - or make sure any e-mail is addressed to you by your registered name before using a link.

I've had quite a few of these spoofs - they are norrmally pretty obvious by the dodgy layout, changing typefaces, too many pictures, lack of real name etc etc. I've given up reporting them as no matter how many addresses they block, spammers will just set up other ones. Just be vigilant yourself and NEVER click on any links you're not sure of, they work by proving to the spammer that your e-mail address exists, then you get flooded with offers of viagara!

I also remove the e-mail address where I have been spammed from my Paypal account so that if it happens again, it cannot possibly be real. This needn't upset your direct links with eBay - keep a separate one and don't give it out anywhere else, only a buyer can see it after they make payment then, and they do this via the checkout without needing to know your address.

Good luck with your selling! :clover:

[Annabel]

We have received fraudulent emails at work from Paypal for large sums of money for sex toys as well, which was abit alarming at first but you can generally tell that these things arent quite right, there is nearly always something odd about the typeset or the phraseology they use.

we also get lots of emails from various 'banks' urging us to update our banking details, its blinking annoying.

i would say to people be very scrupulous about ticking boxes to not allow companies to update you via email with offers from either them or 'associated companies', i think this is the cause of a lot of junk.

we have trouble with it because we email life and investment companies and we go all over the internet doing research and along the way we must have missed a few boxes!

we also never give out our email addresses to anyone that phones up and asks us if they can send us information as we suspect this causes junk mail and spam.