Attention PayPal Users!

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
PSA





I just received a forwarded email from a friend of mine, describing a very authentic looking HTML mail that's been going out to PayPal users, asking them to "Verify their Information". It has all the legitimate logos and all kinds of legitimate phone numbers on it, but the email is a FRAUD.



Some a-hole out there is trying to get PayPal users to basically give up their payment and/or personal information for theft purposes. Talk about someone who deserves to be punched... repeatedly!





Do not respond to anything you get from PayPal, asking you to "confirm your identity / account / information". PayPal has confirmed it is fake (why they wouldn't send out a warning of their own I don't know).



END PSA
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 23
    Once I sold some Diablo 2 digital items to some guy for cash via PayPal, but the payment emails were fake. I was owned. It was like $40 worth of items.
  • Reply 2 of 23
    moogsmoogs Posts: 4,296member
    Yet another reason I refuse to E-Bay. Until it and PayPal are "secure all the time" the way making a credit card payment to your bank is secure, I won't do it. Too many weasel hackers out there who can buck the system from time to time.
  • Reply 3 of 23
    This is indeed a big problem. Macintouch has been follwing it for awhile.
  • Reply 4 of 23
    No one would ever make any money if everything was secure all the time.



    Also, you can check your balance on the PayPal site to make sure the money is there. I just didn't do that, and that's how I got swindled.



    Additionally, you should never give anyone your account information. Companies always tell their customers that they will never ask for their account name/passwords.
  • Reply 5 of 23
    murbotmurbot Posts: 5,262member
    I never ship anything I sell on eBay until I actually have the money in my hands. If someone pays using PayPal, the usual thing is to ship it immediately... I guess I'm slightly paranoid. I hold onto the item until the money makes it from my PayPal account to my bank account.



    I don't think anything is 100% safe. You can do little things to protect yourself, but I think demanding 100% from eBay is a little extreme. Still, if you don't feel comfortable accepting a little risk, there's no one saying you have to use it.



    BTW, I don't think I have ever received an email from PayPal, and I'm going on 4 years with an account there. Anything that appears to be from them would raise red flags for me.



    I hope the bastards rot.
  • Reply 6 of 23
    pfflampfflam Posts: 5,053member
    i got this from PayPal today:
    Quote:

    Safely access the PayPal website or your PayPal account by opening up a new web browser (e.g. Internet Explorer, Netscape, or similar web browsers) and typing in the entire PayPal URL:



    https://www.paypal.com/







    Never give out the following information in a suspicious-looking email that appears to come from PayPal:



    - First name, last name, business name



    - Email and password combination



    - Credit card, bank account, and PIN number



    - Social security and driver's license number



    Remember that PayPal will never ask you to enter your private information in an email.





    Do not download attachments, software updates, or any application to your computer via a link you received in an email. PayPal will not ask you to download anything for your account to work.







    Choose a unique password and change it every 30-60 days.



    seems they know sommething is up
  • Reply 7 of 23
    moogsmoogs Posts: 4,296member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by murbot

    I never ship anything I sell on eBay until I actually have the money in my hands.



    I thought that E-Bay did not allow you to hold on to the product until the money was in your hands. I always heard that part of the deal is that you have to send the product in "good faith" as soon as they hold the payment in escrow (or whatever they call it). Which then of course invites these phony "we have your payment, you can send product x now" type deals.
  • Reply 8 of 23
    ericgericg Posts: 135member
    I've had those fake emails too and most of them consists of a large gif file with text hyper link and it looks if it's from Paypal. there was an IP number in the hyperlink and it pointed to a site in Korea
  • Reply 9 of 23
    paulpaul Posts: 5,278member
    www.paypalwarning.com



    paypal is evil mm'kay?
  • Reply 10 of 23
    Almost everything I have ever bought from eBay the seller waited for the payment to arrive before they shipped it, most of them wait for the check to clear if that's how you paid, too. I don't blame them, and if I had a sellers account I'd do the same.
  • Reply 11 of 23
    murbotmurbot Posts: 5,262member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Moogs

    I thought that E-Bay did not allow you to hold on to the product until the money was in your hands. I always heard that part of the deal is that you have to send the product in "good faith" as soon as they hold the payment in escrow (or whatever they call it). Which then of course invites these phony "we have your payment, you can send product x now" type deals.



    Nope, that's not how it works. Sellers always wait for money to arrive. I was just saying that sellers usually will ship the product when the money hits their PayPal account, and I don't do it until that money transfers from there to my bank account. I use PayPal a lot, but that doesn't mean I trust the bastards.



    What you're talking about is escrow, which some sellers use. The buyer sends their money to the escrow service, then escrow advises you that the payment was received and it's ok to ship, then the buyer lets the escrow service know when they get the item, and the money is forwarded on to you.



    Personally, I wouldn't touch escrow with a 10 foot pole. Too much risk to the seller IMO. I've heard a few horror stories of buyers messing shit up or removing components, then crying to escrow that the item is not what they ordered. Major hassles... and there are also extra fees for using escrow.



    Big plus for PayPal though, is that if you use a credit card to fund your eBay purchase through them, you can use your credit card's fraud protection in the event that the seller doesn't deliver the goods. Of course by doing this you risk your PayPal account being terminated (they do NOT like you going through the CC's fraud dept.), but when you're talking a grand or 2 or 3 for a computer it's a nice safety net.
  • Reply 12 of 23
    moogsmoogs Posts: 4,296member
    Interesting. Either way the system seems a bit flawed to me, but you have to start somewhere obviously, if the rules of commerce are to change / improve. I certainly wouldn't send a thing until all the cash hit my account / was in my hand, whether it was a money order or whatever.
  • Reply 13 of 23
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Paul

    www.paypalwarning.com



    paypal is evil mm'kay?




    Ouch that website hurts my eyes.
  • Reply 14 of 23
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Moogs

    Yet another reason I refuse to E-Bay. Until it and PayPal are "secure all the time" the way making a credit card payment to your bank is secure, I won't do it. Too many weasel hackers out there who can buck the system from time to time.



    why? i've never had a problem with either



    though i have got fake paypal and ebay mails before
  • Reply 15 of 23
    Quote:

    Originally posted by murbot

    I never ship anything I sell on eBay until I actually have the money in my hands. If someone pays using PayPal, the usual thing is to ship it immediately... I guess I'm slightly paranoid. I hold onto the item until the money makes it from my PayPal account to my bank account.





    slightly
  • Reply 16 of 23
    amorphamorph Posts: 7,112member
    PayPal had better know that something's up, because I've been forwarding those stupid "account information" emails to spoof at paypal dot com (the designated address for spoof/fraud emails) with full headers for a couple of months now.



    I get a lot of them. It happens when you post to USENET.
  • Reply 17 of 23
    murbotmurbot Posts: 5,262member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by burningwheel

    slightly







    Hey, just ask Leonis. He sold something last year I think, and shipped right away. PayPal swiped the money from his account the next day because the guy had used a stolen credit card number. He ended up with squat.



    Bastards.
  • Reply 18 of 23
    andersanders Posts: 6,523member
    Here is how I do eBay:



    -Buy something that is used and with no clear written guarantee it works (Newton, Airport card, vinyl).



    -Send money from Denmark



    -In an ordinary envelope



    -Ask seller to sent it in uninsured USPS letter/package to Denmark.



    Can anyone imagine how many steps can go wrong in that? And double the risk because the seller can claim it happened (money lost on the way to him, item lost on the way to me, item broken because of the handling etc etc etc)



    How many times has this gone wrong? zero out of perhaps thirty times.



    But then again I am the kind of guy who drops his credit card by accident and always get it back unused (nine times. One time it was sent to me before I realised it was missing) and always find his stolen bike a few days later (two times with my current bike)



    Power to the naive blue eyed people
  • Reply 19 of 23
    paulpaul Posts: 5,278member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Anders

    Power to the naive blue eyed people



    the fremen?
  • Reply 20 of 23
    cakecake Posts: 1,010member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Amorph

    PayPal had better know that something's up, because I've been forwarding those stupid "account information" emails to spoof at paypal dot com (the designated address for spoof/fraud emails) with full headers for a couple of months now.



    Did you get a reply from PayPal?



    I forwarded them a fake email that I received and PayPal got back to me that same day:

    Quote:

    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



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