For those of you with Paypal accounts, beware. There is yet another email scam going around using Paypal as the mode of scamming. I received the following in an email at my work email:
Dear Valued Member,
There seems to be quite a number of login attempts that we have monitored
indicating another person was trying to use your account
without your consent.
Due to this, we have limited your account in the mean time
until we hear from you. Usually, there are a number of
reasons why we would limit an account. In this case, your
account had to be limited to add greater security and to
protect you and your account.
When an account is limited, there are certain actions
that our security system prevents you from doing; which usually includes
sending, receiving, or withdrawing money.
We ask that you please open the attachment that we
have provided in this email. It is a form that you
should go through to confirm your identity
with us.
After doing so, we can then carefully review your
information that you have provided and lift off the limitation. It shouldn’t take
too long to process.
We apologize for the inconvenience.
Sincerely,
PayPal Security Team
How do I know it is a scam? I do not have a PP account and if I did, it would never be tied to my work email. Needless to say, I did not open the attachment. These people never stop.
Being suspicious is always the safe play here. Obviously since you don’t have a PP account, it is a scam. For those that do have PP accounts, one way to tell it’s a scam is to hover the mouse cursor over the link. Somewhere on your screen you will be able to see where the email address goes to. Or you could just call PP, using the phone number from their website, to see if it is legitimate.
j
Another scam is the “Gift Recovery” phone calls and emails. Someone calls and says you have an unclaimed gift from a contest that you have won. Usually a monetary award that they can automatically deposit into your account for your convenience. Just need your information… Yeah, right.
I’ve had a Paypal account for a long time & have received several of these emails over the years. First, Paypal, nor Ebay will ever send you an attachment to an email, that should be the first indication it’s a fraud.
quote:Never follow an email link. Open your browser, go to the website, and log in or reset from their website, never a link
Second, as perfectly stated by Too Busy, check via the actual website, not by a link.
You can also forward the email to “spoof@paypal.com” and wait for a reply. They’re pretty good about sending a reply, auto-generated, but at least you’ll know they got it. They may not reply otherwise, but most other replies I’ve gotten back have indicated the original in fact was NOT from them & I simply deleted it.