PayPal

[June]

I have received the email message below several times. I am a little hesitant to reply as I am not sure I am really replying to PayPal. I have emailed them directly from the PayPal website asking if this is legitimate but have not received a reply. When I click on the area that says 'Click here to verify your information" it does not take me to a secure site. It asks for my email address and password. If I fill that in it may take me to a secure site but I am a little uneasy about filling in that information. Any ideas?

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The sender of this message, service@paypal.com, could not be verified by Sender ID. Learn more about Sender ID.

From : paypal@info> <service@paypal.com>
Reply-To : <service@paypal.com>
Sent : Tuesday, May 9, 2006 6:26 PM
Subject : Unauthorized Access:NA (Routing Code: C840-L001-Q-T-S111) (KMMW72498486V38646L0KM)


February 2006

PayPal Security Measures.

It's easy to track your expenses and stay organized when you use PayPal. All your incoming and outgoing payments are tracked on your Account History page. See sample.

Your account has been flagged!
PayPal Security Measures.

Dear PayPal Member,

Your account has been randomly flagged in our system as a part of our routine security measures. This is a must to ensure that only you have access and use of your Paypal account and to ensure a safe PayPal experience. We require all flagged accounts to verify their information on file with us. To verify your information at this time, please visit our secure server webform by clicking the hyperlink below:

Click here to verify your Information


If you choose to ignore our request, you leave us no choice but to temporarily suspend your account.
Thank you for your patience as we work together to protect your account.

Your PayPal Account in Action

[mylanta]

This is bogus June just ignore it.

[June]

Thanks Rich.

[Terry Hanushek]

June

This is a Phish attempting to get you to respond. You were very wise not to bite on this scam. Responding will expose your email account and possibly your banking to their unscrupulous intentions. Best case is more spam, worse case .....

Both my wife and I have received many messages like this one purportedly from several financial institutions - all very official looking with logos and a plausible story. No reputable financial institution will ask for passwords and personal data in an email of this nature ... particularly when this is the first communication.

I am a little surprised that you have not heard back from PayPal. Have you tried to contact their security department?

Terry

[mommalina]

I got the same email asking for my email address and password. Since I have never used PayPal, I figured it was bogus! .......... :nono:

Wonder how many have fallen for this scam.

Lina

[June]

Terry, The only option the security center gives is to forward the email to them at spoof@paypal.com. I think this is what I did the first time but I just did it again and again requested a response. Maybe they can use my email to track down the phisher and maybe they will get back to me this time.

[Dan18960]

June,

Usually they don't waste their time on those phishing attempts because just forwarding the email doesn't send the header that you got with the email. What happens is you are forwarding the TEXT of the message and the header is YOUR email pop account.

If you are using OE (Outlook Express), you can right click on the message, go to properties, and there you will see the header info. This is what paypal really needs to track down the phishers.

But even then that can be a wasted time - most phishers are using zombie computers to "forward" their garbage. And the tracking would just go back to some unsuspecting soul that didn't have anything to do with the message in the first place.

The best thing to do is REMEMBER - if you didn't contact a company, they are not going to contact you. Microsoft doesn't pay you for emails you send, Sony isn't going to give you a free PS-3 playstation, and you are not going to get any money for forwarding that chain email.

If you aren't expecting an email from a company - just hit the delete key. You probably get enough forwarded emails from your friends anyway.

You can always go to www.snopes.com (http://www.snopes.com) and look up anything you got that is questionable. They are usually pretty up to date on what is scamming everyone.

[casey]

I received the same thing a while back and I forwarded it to them. They did respond but only to tell me that they never ask for information like that. That ended that.

[mylanta]

True both eBay and Paypal will never send you an email that either asks for your identitiy info or makes you sign in to respond...if you note the messages too, most of the "baddies" come in "aw-ebay" or "aw-Paypal" besides.

[jcampi]

I received a similar email, but they used the ebay logo. It asked me to verify my account info. or I would risk being terminated. The email looked so real I almost believed it. I posted it on some boards and received the advice to delete it. I've lerned Paypal and ebay will not email you to verify any account information.