PayPal Scam

[Teegate]

All,

Anyone who has PayPal should be interested in this. I received the below email earlier this week.

http://www.njpinebarrens.com/~teegate/pp.jpg

I was suspicious instantly, but I am always interested to see how scams work, so I went to the website. Here is the actual site that I was directed to.

http://www.paypal.com@allresource.n...sion1=verifyinf&logscr=1&cryptkey=HM%


I decided to write PayPal and report the site, and here is the reply I received from the real PayPal people.



Thank you for bringing this suspicious email to our attention. We can
confirm that the email you received; was not sent to you by PayPal. The
website linked to this email is not a registered URL authorized or used by
PayPal. We are currently investigating this incident fully. Please do not
enter any personal or financial information into this website.

If you have surrendered any personal or financial information to this
fraudulent website, you should immediately log into your PayPal Account and
change your password and secret question and answer information. Any
compromised financial information should be reported to the appropriate
parties.

If you notice any unauthorized activity associated with your PayPal
transaction history, please immediately report this to PayPal by following
the instructions below:

1. Go to https://www.paypal.com/
2. Click on the Security Center at the bottom of the page
3. Click on "Report a Problem"
4. Select the Topic: Report Fraud
5: Select the Subtopic: Unauthorized use of my PayPal Account, and click
Continue.
6. Follow the instructions to access the appropriate form


So if you have a PayPal account, be warned that this scam is in the works, and as of yet PayPal has not been able to have that site taken down.

Guy

 

[BarryC]

Hi Guy,
Earlier in the year, actually early in 2003, (I don't remember when now) I was getting these PayPal scam emails quite often, sometimes 2 in a day. They were all ending up in my bulk mail folder though. I was suspicious and started searching some of the Ebay and PayPal message boards and found out that it indeed was a scam. For me it all stopped sometime later. I was not aware that it was still going on. I thought Ebay had put a stop to it. (Ebay owns PayPal.)
So definitely do not pay any attention to these emails.
I wonder how many people have fallen for this since it started. I almost did myself.
Thanks Guy.

 

[bach2yoga]

Guy,
Thanks for the heads up, I use paypal frequently.
Renee

 

[Anonymous]

great advice, heres a current e-bay scam

Great advice Guy,
I've been a buyer/seller on e-bay using paypal for several years now and heard of this scam earlier this year. It caused me to change two things, first I never sign into e-bay or paypal using links in my e-mail, instead I login seperately (even when I know the e-mail is safe). second I change my password every 60 - 90 days. I use letters, numbers, and characters with no recognizable words (experts advise to never use a word found in a dictionary or a proper name)
I also just recently started paying attention to the little gold lock icon in the browser window. If you look at the web address from your e-mail you'll notice there is no "s" following "http", and the "/" does not immediately follow the ".com". although these are warning signs, hackers have apparently found a way to "hide" the true web address behind what you actually see.
The current e-bay scam getting the most attention right know goes a little like this;
People (mostly from outside the US) are setting up very new accounts (0 feedback, less than a week old) and listing high dollar, very desirable, and current year items (electronics, bicycles, optical equipment) with starting bids at less than wholesale value with no reserve and no photos (if it's too good to be true it probably is!) He/she makes it a private auction to avoid victims being sent warning e-mails from other users. The only payment method allowed is bank wire transfer (little or no protection). As soon as someone bids they send the victim an e-mail stating they will end the auction early for their bid amount so go ahead and transfer the money. Voila! the item never arrives and lo and behold their out a lot of money. They are getting away with it quite often because e-bay can only chase them so fast. I found an auction last week, but could not find it again (must have been kicked off already) so I can't show everybody an example.

Again, thanks Guy for spreading the warning
John

 

[njvike]

great advice, heres a current e-bay scam

If you look at the web address from your e-mail you'll notice there is no "s" following "http", and the "/" does not immediately follow the ".com". although these are warning signs, hackers have apparently found a way to "hide" the true web address behind what you actually see.
John

Never transmit information to a non-secure site. As you mentioned, you can tell by the https.