Phony PayPal E-Mail

Lawrence Lupkin · Post by **Lawrence Lupkin** » 12 May 2005 5:05 am

Here's a new twist on an old attempt to get you to surrender your personal information. This fraudulent e-mail informs me that I have added a new e-mail address to my account. I immediately checked (not by clicking their link) and confirmed that it was not the case. PayPal confirmed that it was false. Here is the original text. Beware!:

You have added DTT_Data@earth-online.com as a new email address for your
PayPal account.

If you did not authorize this change or if you need assistance with
your account, please contact PayPal customer service at:

https://www.paypal.com/row/wf/f=ap_login

Thank you for using PayPal!
The PayPal Team

----------------------------------------------------------------
PROTECT YOUR PASSWORD

NEVER give your password to anyone and ONLY log in at
https://www.paypal.com/ Protect yourself against fraudulent websites
by opening a new web browser (e.g. Internet Explorer or Netscape) and typing
in the PayPal URL every time you log in to your account.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Please do not reply to this e-mail. Mail sent to this address cannot be
answered. For assistance, log in to your PayPal account and choose the
"Help" link in the header of any page.

PayPal Email ID PP107

*edited for spelling*[This message was edited by Lawrence Lupkin on 12 May 2005 at 06:23 AM.]

J W Alexander · Post by **J W Alexander** » 12 May 2005 5:16 am

This scam is called "phishing" and is certainly intended to get personal and/or secure information. When/if you click a link it takes you to their site where it's hoped you'll enter all the info they're seeking. Some even create a look-alike page so the trickery is complete.

I've been told the best way to combat this is to NOT click an email link but rather use your own browser and enter the web sites address to assure you're not re-directed.

J W

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 12 May 2005 5:31 am

I've had several different scam pay pal e-mails. All the scam e-mails did not have my name referenced. I got a "real" message from Pay Pal awhile back and it noted that real pay pal messages will include your name (although that doesn't mean a scam e-mail couldn't have your name in it).

Bill Llewellyn · Post by **Bill Llewellyn** » 13 May 2005 6:09 am