For those with PayPal Accounts

[robmob]

If you have a PayPal account, watch out for the following Scam E-mail.

This is not sent out by PayPal. I have reported it to PayPal and they have confirmed it is a Scam. The actual sender is trying to get your credit card info.


The Subject of the e-mail is: "PayPal Random Account Verification"

Sent from: "[email protected]"


Please verify your information today!

Dear PayPal user

PayPal is constantly working to increase security for all our users. To ensure the integrity of our payment network, we periodically review accounts.

Your account will be placed on restricted status. Restricted accounts continue to receive payments but are limited in their ability to send or redraw funds.

To lift this restriction, you need to complete our credit card verification process. At least one credit card in your account has been unconfirmed meaning that you may no longer send money with this or any other card in your account until you have completed the credit card confirmation process. To initiate the credit card confirmation, please follow this link and fill necessarily fields:



http://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_rav_form

Thank You

The Paypal Account Review Department

 

[Scummer]

Wow.. what strikes me is the fact, that the webaddress seems to be the one of paypal.
Other times the scam is easily detectable by looking at the webaddress and shows something like www.paypal.whatever.net or something like that.

Were you actually able to trace the email message back by looking at the header information?

Freaky..

Thomas

 

[mcvickj]

Thanks for the heads up.

 

[robmob]

I didn't try and trace the e-mail. I knew it was a scam though because it is structured just like the scam e-mails I received regarding my eBay account.

One obvious problem is the fact that the link takes you directly to a page to enter your credit card info. It looks like a PayPal page, however, in you look close close at the address it reads http. An actual PayPal site would have read https.

 

[Çh®i§tiªñ]

I havent seen one that is an actual paypal link yet. In appearance (in the email ONLY) does it look like a paypal link, however, when you open the page itself it is just an I.P. address in the address bar. And it was a 'secure' site that it took me to.

Another way to detect this email is the fact that it is not in fact text, but an image. So if you get one of these emails, hit CTRL+A to select all. That will quickly identify it as an image. Secondly, there will be selected text at the bottom you will then be able to see.

If you read through PayPal's policies, they will NEVER send you an email requesting your credit card information. EVER!

I've been hit by this a few times already, and some have been kind of funny. Others harder to tell. BUt all scams none-the-less.

 

[robmob]

The link on the original e-mail read as shown above, but takes you to a page that asks you to enter your credit card info. If you press the link above, it takes you to an outdated paypal page.

Christian is correct. PayPal or eBay would never send an e-mail requesting your credit card info or user name and password.

If you are worried that there may be a problems with your account. Always log on as you normally would and check your account status. DO NOT use any link to do so on a suspected bogus e-mail.

 

[Scummer]

Originally posted by Çh®i§tiªñ
I havent seen one that is an actual paypal link yet. In appearance (in the email ONLY) does it look like a paypal link, however, when you open the page itself it is just an I.P. address in the address bar. And it was a 'secure' site that it took me to.

Ah... ok now that explains it.
So robmob's link from his post is only going to paypal because of the copy+paste. The underlying link was actually an IP... ok.. makes sense now.

Thomas

 

[robmob]

I was going to post the actual site the link took me to, but I just checked it and it is now dead.