Fake Paypal E-mail warning

Chris · Fake Paypal E-mail warning

I received this this morning...

PayPal is constantly working to ensure security by regularly screening the accounts in our system. We recently reviewed your account, and we need more information to help us provide you with secure service. Until we can collect this information, your access to sensitive account features will be limited. We would like to restore your access as soon as possible, and we apologize for the inconvenience.

This is done for your protection only you, the recipient of this email can take the next step in the remove limitation process.

Why is my account access limited?

June 21, 2007: We have reason to believe that your account was accessed by a third party. Because protecting the security of your account is our primary concern, we have limited access to sensitive PayPal account features. We understand that this may be an inconvenience but please understand that this temporary limitation is for your protection.

How can I restore my account access?

Please scan the following documents, attach them to your email and forward them to security@paypalfraudchecking.com

- Your credit/debit card statement or utility bill ( example: Phone Bill, Electric Bill, etc....)
- A valid photo ID (example: Passport, Drivers License, etc...)

Completing all of the checklist items will automatically restore your account access.

Thank you for using PayPal!
The PayPal an eBay Company

Watch out for anything similar.

tmuir

Scan your credit card bill and send it to them, they have got to be joking!

Thats one of the worst scans I've seen in a long time.

Chris

Yes, but sadly people fall for these things.

tmuir

Yes I know.

One of my wives clients got a letter telling them they had won
$100 000 US in a world run comp that they picked names out of phone books and they had won and just needed to send their bank details to collect the prize.

I got asked if it was fake and my response was.
'If this was genuine it would of been printed with a laser jet printer not an inkjet printer.'

That scam made it into the paper here as a lot of people fell for it.

Mamodman123

Cheers for the warning Chris

Wallace

Nice of you to bring that up Chris

Just a note for anyone who isn't sure.

If you get an email from a bank, ebay, paypal, or any place that has your bank/credit card details stored, delete it (or report the email to the appropriate place). Don't click on any link in the email.

Only enter details through the correct website which you get to by typing in the correct address. Don't do it through a link, unless it's legit.

It seems obvious, but many may not know.

I had a couple recently, about paypal, and one looked so real I visited the paypal site, looked at my details, and saw nothing was wrong.
But had I clicked the link in that email, I probably would be having a lot of troubles by now

Chris

I found that paypal actually have an address for sending fake e-mails too...

spoof@paypal.com

They actually replied very quickly which surprised me.

V8Nick

ebay have a similar reporting system, but they never bother to follow up on reports (I know).

Quite often these spoof or 'phishing' emails will have a link in them like this...

wvw.trustedsite.com

where the URL you see on the screen bears no relation to where the link actually takes you. If you're using IE, and you hover over the link, you should see the correct address in the lower left corner of your screen.

TE1A_man

"Please send us your property deed and a spare key to your house along with all your credit card numbers and social security number, and the location of any gun or weapon in your house, and where you sleep at night."

If you ever get an email like this, you may want to contact your local authorities.

Wallace

LOL, that's true

I never really got spam, just some fake emails (or is that spam)

Must be a wave of them again. I woke up this morning to the following ones (links have been removed for safety)

Dear HSBC.co.uk Account Holder,

We have recently determined that different computers have been logging into your Online Banking HSBC Account,
due to multiple password failures we have reached the conclusion that your account might have been bruteforced
for this reason we are asking you to verify your account.
If you don't manage to verify yourself as the account holder we will put a temporary block on your account.

I don't even know what HSBC is, a bank in the UK? Well I'm in OZ

They could at least get countries right

This one, to look like it was from ebay

Item:JOHNNY DEPP SOCKS Pirates of Carribean t-shirt-sz 9-11 (180114826067)
This message was sent while the listing was active.
jackjack14 is a potential buyer.

Hey, I have tired twice to pay you through paypal but the transaction is not working its keeps giving an error message (This recipient is currently unable to receive money) is there anything wrong with your paypal??

Pirates of the carribean

Give me a break. Never even seen it, let alone sell crappy merchandise for it

And this one

Good Day,

Let me start by introducing myself.I am Mr. SONG LI LE director of
operations of the Hang Seng Bank Ltd.I will need you to assist me in
executing this Business Project from Hong Kong to your
country.(US$36,300,000.00) only in my branch.Please endeavor to observe utmost
discretion in all matters concerning this issue. Once the funds have been
transferred to your nominated bank account we shall then share in the ratio
of 70% for me, 30% for you.
Should you be interested please send me your,
1,Full names,
2,private phone number,
3,current residential address,
Finally after that I shall provide you with more details of this
operation.
And I will prefer you reach me on my private email address below

This is after getting an average of about one fake email a week, so be on the lookout and don't click or reply to ANYTHING

IndianaRog

Wallace, those ARE spam mail...just a variety known as "phishing" emails...intent on somehow convincing recipient to enter credit card, or eBay login, or PayPal or whatever personal information which is then used to clean out bank accounts.

Your advice to NOT open any links within such emails is very prudent. Those trying to look like eBay or PayPal I just forward on to one of two addresses as appropriate:

spoof@ebay.com
or
spoof@paypal.com

They confirm very quickly whether such email is fake...100% of the ones I have forwarded to them have been confirmed as fake.

Just gotta use common sense...NO outfit with any personal info on you is going to ask for it again via email...that is the key.

bas***ds all!!!
Rog

Wallace

Great info there Rog.

Just to add another reason why not to open any link, as clicking on them can install key loggers or other nasties

TE1A_man

I use a free program that scans and catches any viruses in mail and spyware in mail/downloads. You wouldn't believe the amount it has caught! I've used it for 2 weeks so far, and it has caught 7 viruses, and 84 mb of spybots

. In case you were ever wondering, a spybot is a small file, about 1 kb, that wriggles into your system and embeds itself in a hidden file, and it watches what you use your computer for and what things you use, mostly they are sent out by the manufacturer of your computer/your ISP. All the spyware i caught were AOL spyware

. When i upgraded my HP Vectra to Windows XP, it lost all trace of what make and model of computer it is.

Stilldrillin

Sandman

I like Spybot as you can imunise your system against attack.

All you have to do is make sure you keep your definitions up to date and it will block any attempt to install spyware on your system.

TE1A_man

The program is "Systematic antivirus"

It works pretty good for me, i leave my computer running 24/7, so Systematic automatically runs a scan everyday.