possible paypal scam

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T

Tazuk

  • #1
    I have been recieving a message from paypal advising me to confirm my account and security details.
    The thing that makes me realise that it is a posible scam is that the email has been sent to my business email address which paypal do not have on record.
    If you get anything similar then sign on to paypal via the paypal website and not the link provided in the email message.
    I didn't use the link because alarm bells rang straight away.

    TAZ
     
    Ozzy

    Ozzy

    Founder of UKBF
    UKBF Staff
    • Feb 9, 2003
    8,362
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    Northampton, UK
    bdgroup.co.uk
  • #2
    This is a common ongoing scam that has been around for ages. The same goes for emails that appear to come from your bank such as Barclays, Natwest, etc. saying they are upgrading their systems and need you to log into a website by clicking a link.

    All scams aimed at you disclosing your login details on a fraudsters website and then they quickly log in with those details to your real bank and transfer all your money to their own account, then disappear.
     
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    M

    multilingual

  • #3
    I can agree with Richard on this point, it has been going around for quite some time but thanks for giving it a posting as these things can never be said too many times.

    The main thing to look for is them using your account name: for example, if it is really a Paypal email they will always start off by saying Dear Steven Phillips (or whatever your real name is), where as the bogus ones usually begin Dear Paypal customer or Dear Paypal account holder.

    Even if the hyper link says www.paypal.com, you can simply hover the arrow over it and read the tru destination on the bottom left of IE. They are usually just bogus pages to try and get your log in details.

    JB
     
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    C

    creospace

  • #4
    The latest one is to hover an image of an address bar that looks like the real mccoy over the address bar itself, very clever and I only spotted it by quickly scrolling the page up and down.

    I know it was fishing but I wanted to work out how they did the address bar trick!
     
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    D

    dcraigdc

  • #7
    Yeah but they still wouldn't have your paypal account details. This is the one thing to ALWAYS look out for. If it doesnt say "Dear (paypal name/username)" then report the email straight away. Same with ebay, banks etc.

    To be honest if somebody can find the username associated with your Paypal account in order to email you, they can probably find your password as well and wouldn't need to do the phishing thing in the first place.
     
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    S

    SuffolkDesigns

  • #8
    The best way is never to follow any links in mails like this, but instead type the address you want to go to direct into your browser, then you know you are at the correct page.

    Sending a copy of the mail to [email protected] mormally gets an answer in less than 24 hours telling you it was a phishing mail.
     
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    C

    crus

  • #10
    Hi all,

    As a 'techie' I have developed the scurist way of avoiding these scams (as an owner of many domains I receive hundreds of these things a day) its simple really if you get a PayPal one that looks legit, ignore the links and just open up a fresh browser window and go to paypal.com and login.

    This works for most companies that the souwester waring gits go for as large companies tend to have a message loader when you log in.

    The system only fails in two ways,

    1. you dont run up to date anti virus and have a good (ideally physical) firewall.

    2. (for mac my day) someone spoofs the address, say by forcing incorrect responses to dns queries so that www.actualsite.com is resolved to a different host and thustransparent to the user.

    Hope this helps

    D
     
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    Rob Holmes

    Rob Holmes

    Free Member
    Business Listing
    Mar 23, 2005
    3,600
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    theivybridgecollection.com
  • #11
    MacMyDay said:
    I'm just waiting for the ultimate phishing technique that will mean you actually go to paypal.com and end up on another site, without even knowing it and type in your details.
    Click to expand...

    I discovered a way to do this a couple of months ago - so like VS says - ONLY goto Paypal through a shortcut on your pc or by typing in the URL into the address bar - I don't use internet explorer but I am sure there is a way to prevent redirects :)

    Rob
     
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    C

    Coding Monkey

  • #12
    Matrixx said:
    I discovered a way to do this a couple of months ago - so like VS says - ONLY goto Paypal through a shortcut on your pc or by typing in the URL into the address bar - I don't use internet explorer but I am sure there is a way to prevent redirects :)

    Rob
    Click to expand...

    The way I'm thinking of, that I could to a friends PC in 5 seconds, even means that method wouldn't safe guard you. I'm pretty sure I know of the method you're thinking of and that works using JavaScript.
     
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    a-okadmin

    a-okadmin

    Free Member
    Jun 1, 2005
    276
    6
    Paisley, Renfrewshire
  • #14
    Pink Bubbly said:
    There have recently been some ebay ones as well.
    I received one this morning to an email address that is very new and certainly not been used for shopping on ebay!
    Click to expand...

    I also received 2 emails this morning claiming to be from eBay. It did get my attention because it claimed that someone had tried to use my account fraudulently, even though I don't have an eBay account to that email address. I checked with eBay and they confirmed that it was a "spoof".
     
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