PayPal & my kneejerk reaction

[Boston John Doucette]

For the last year or so I've been doing some buying and selling on ebay and had established a PayPal account to facilitate the transactions.

I never had a problem with PayPal and found it to be mutually advantageous to buyers and sellers... it was quick, easy and secure.

Today I received an e-mail from PayPal stating that someone had tried to log into my account from Spain... and that if I didn't respond to the e-mail my account would be suspended (that's good! it protects the user, IMO)

What I did was panic... Heck, these folks had my credit card number!
First I removed my credit card from my account... and then I closed my PayPal account.
I was pretty much through with what i was using it for anyway... but did I panic unnecessarily?

How do these people get my user name AND password to access my account?
The ONLY reason PayPal denied them access was that the foreign ISP sent up red flags.

Beware, folks, if you use anything like this.
It sent chills down me spine, it did! The potential for loss is tremendous...

Just a word of caution...

BJD

 

[Trinity]

Be warned pard!  I got an email too from "Paypal" with the subject line: Paypal account security measures Id#34904.  In that email they stated that several attempts were made to access my account from different IP addresses and that I should logon to make sure that all was in order.

I was already suspiscious, but I followed the link which led me to an official looking login page.  Looked like the real thing except that the address in the address bar WAS NOT PAYPAL!  I backed out and reported it to their security center through the following link (which can be found among the options at the bottom of the website):

https://www.paypal.com/ewf/f=pps_spf

Within a half hour I had a response from them telling me that it was indeed a fraudulent email!!

Please make sure that the email that you mentioned did indeed come from the real folks at Paypal.

[St. George]

You got 'phished'...

Whenever you get anything like this - re-read it carefully for typo's and the like.

Also read how you're addressed - as opposed to the way you were 'officially' addressed when you'd initially set up your account.

Bet you'll find a difference.

Forward that spurious email to spoof@paypal.com and they'll handle it quickly.

Good Luck.

Scouts Out!

[Fightin Creek Slim]

Yep it was a Phishing email designed to steal your personal account information. I've seen this same scam several times There are dozens of these posing as Paypal going around the net nowdays, and probably hundreds more of them posing as banks, credit card companies,Ebay. ISP's etc... All of them have spoof websites of the companies they are attempting to impersonate. Most of these Phisher sites are only up for a day or two, Before the fraud dept of the host pulls the plug on them, so they are constantly setting up new sites and keeping thier scam emails in circulation

BJD I hope that you didn't go to thier site and give them any of your personal account info. A legitimate company with whom you have an account, would not contact you through email regarding possible fradulent usage of your account. St. George nailed it report this one to  spoof@paypal.com and possibly to  http://www.antiphishing.org/consumer_recs.html

[Goatlips]

Hay, join the club Boston John...

And these skunks are getting better; the first couple of "spoof's" (read attempted grand larceny) emails I rec'd were laughingly childish, but the last one was really good.  No matter, if they send out ten thousand, they'll get two or three bites, and be on the road to retirement.  At least these guys have a profit motive, rather than the little ba*tards that send out their viruses out of sheer vandalism, dirty scum-sucking arsonist wannabees, snort honk now ya got me started!.....

Goatlips

[Big John Denny]

Everyone needs to understand that no legitimate financial company you deal with will ever send you an e-mail asking you to verify information they should already have on file. This is nation-wide one of the most popular new scams being used by criminals around the world to gather personal and financial information of honest but unwary folks. It never ceases to amaze me that people who balk at giving their address and phone number to others will respond to any official looking e-mail without hesitation.

Never ever respond to any e-mail or telephonic request for any personal or financial information for any purpose. A legitimate company you deal with will contact you by official mail. I always call them to verify the letter is from them too. After being a detective for 35 years I'm just suspecious of everything. 

[Boston John Doucette]

Yep... it was a scam, alright.

Following y'all's advice I went back and checked the address on the e-mail and then went to the legitimate PayPal site to report the e-mail.

Fortunately when I closed my PayPal account I used its actual site... I didn't try to go through the phish mail.
I may re-establish my PayPal account... but on the other hand, if I don't have one, I'm less likely to buy stuff I don't need 

Thanks for all your help, pards.
Much appreciated.

BJD

[Marauder]

It is a good idea to never click on a link in email.  The safer way is to copy the link, then paste it into your browser.  Why, because they can change the label to say anything while hiding a fraudulent address.  As an example of the label, look to the lower right of this message and you will see a link that says "Report to moderator"  The actual link is not visible unless you move your mouse over it.  Sometimes emails don't show the actual link that is embeded.

When you copy, then past, you are using the address that was listed rather than a "hidden" link.

This is not a cure all, but it helps to know where you are linking to.

[Badlands Walker]

BJD, I had a PayPal account for some 4 years to deal with eBay & such.  I ran into the very same issue & contacted PayPal immediately.  They assured me the email was a fake & not to respond or open any of those emails.  It was explained to me if you logon to those, then they have the neccessary info to attache your account!

About two months later, I had extra fees on my PayPal account, saying that I owed for purchases on eBay.  I had made no purchases on eBay in about 6 weeks & contacted PayPal to clear this matter up.  They claimed their records showed different & refused to remove the charges.  After sending proof that my eBay account was idle for the period I claimed, I then closed my PayPal account & will never open one again.  They took me for $56.18 in eBay charges that never existed!

[El Paso Pete]

I must be on list, I been gettin them e-mails lookin like they was from my bank, ebay, and paypal.  This has been goin on since the first of the year.  I just delete 'em.

[Badlands Walker]

Yeah Pete, stay away from them emails.  That's bad news pard!

[Curley Cole]

I get emails like that several times a week from ebay, earthlink, wells fargo, paypal and several others. All look very official. Sometimes it is a giveaway when they have several names in the address...all varations of yours. but often they do get a real email address. Then often I find poor grammer and run on sentances, I mean really bad errors. But the one that really cracks me up is when they have several mis-spelled words...Can't they afford a spell checker?

I pretty much ignore all of them. I figure my bank and earthlink will get hold of me some other way ifin it is important...
cc

[D. R. Greysun]

Been there done that and won't go back!     It was the only time I've had my C/C compromised.  If you feel you have to use PayPal, set up a special and separate account for it.  Most bank will let you set one up with a debit/ATM card and minimal balance.  Only keep enough in the account to cover purchases.  Hell, they can't steal what isn't there!

D R (who don't PayPal)

[Blondetta]

   I had the same problem with ebay and paypal.  Last, Monday I got zapped from my earthlink account.  On EBAY- I had bad reviews left, 'cause of it.  My the nasty names those folk left on me and the name calling- being called a dog and a _itch for all to see, left me with a very sour taste to buy anything over the internet.   
   I even had to change my email addy.  As usual, I learned my lesson the hard way.

[Curley Cole]

The majority of my purchases on ebay have been with check.Sometimes if I really want the item I will get them a cashiers check (I get them free at my bank) I have about 250 pos. feedbacks both buying and selling. I figure if they want to sell it bad enough, my check should do just fine. Of course some people have been washing a check and making it out for millions...
so we always are about one step behind the bad guys...
cc

[Prof. A. Wickwire]

The only way I purchase on Ebay is with a Postal Money Order.  Yes, this means I have to go to a Post Office, but it is worth the extra inconvenience to me.  Easier to track, more options in case of fraud, and no wait while your personal check clears.  The Post Office only charges $.90 for the service.  To me this is well worth the price.

Even though I have never had a PayPal account I also get the emails that there is a problem.  They get sent to my junk mail reporting list.

Sincerely,

Prof. A. Wickwire

[El Peludo]

Curley Cole said:

But the one that really cracks me up is when they have several mis-spelled words...Can't they afford a spell checker?

IMO, those misspelled words are just one way to try to get past your spam filters; and they do work, unless you constantly update the stuff that your filters are supposed to block.  I get stuff all the time that is just a bunch of gibberish, with some sort of advertisement, or obvious scam embedded, but the gibberish doesen't fit the words in the filters, so it gets through.

[Fightin Creek Slim]

Those misspelled words in the subject line of emails are intended to get past spam filters, However I think that the misspellings and gramatical errors that were mentioned here in this thread were in reference to those type of errors on the spoof websites linked through the phisher emails. Some of these phisher emails and spoof sites are quite professional looking while others are quite amatuerish. One of the IP's of a scammer posing as Earthlink was traced back to Russia. The Russian Lads or "Vlads" are quite sophisticated compared to the Lads from Lagos or the Nigerian scammers. Most of the phishing scams originate outside of Nigeria while a lot of Ebay and auction site scams mostly involving check, credit card  and money order fraud will be traced back to Nigeria or to Nigerians living in other parts of the world.

[SGT John Chapman]

For this reason I have an account that I only put as much as I'm going to use in it and that's all it's for,............

[Gold Canyon Kid]

I don't have any Pay Pal account-have never even been to their web site, but about 4 months ago, I got two charges to Pay Pal on my credit card for over $1000.  I did panic, called the credit card company and we cancelled my cards immediately.  They immediately removed the charges. They indicated they were about be ready to longer honor Pay Pal charges because of the large number of fraudlent charges coming from them.  They did get Fed Exed to me two new cards the next day.