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Am I being scammed?

G

GanChan

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 21, 2005
617
27
Email text follows:

Your account will be suspended !

We are contacting you to remind you that on 29 April 2007 our Account Review Team identified some unusual activity in your account. In accordance with PayPal's User Agreement and to ensure that your account has not been compromised, access to your

account was limited. Your account access will remain limited until this issue has been resolved.

To secure your account and quickly restore full access, we may require some additional information from you for the following reason:

We have been notified that a card associated with your account has been reported as

lost or stolen, or that there were additional problems with your card.

To securely confirm your PayPal information please go to your PayPal's Update Profile or click on the link bellow:
​

Et cetera. I'm not clicking on anything if i don't know it's legit. And the fact that I don't recall being "reminded" of any such unusual activity, along with the fact that "below" is misspelled, doesn't exactly fill me with confidence.

I call B.S. Correct?
 
Why not just log into the PayPal website (without using any of the links in the email) and see if any prompts are shown?


It'll just be crap mate, just delete it and don't worry!
 
yep, paypal will never tell you to click the link below, they will just tell you to log into your paypal account from paypal.com
 
If you have to ask if you are being scammed then you probably are. Did you actually report any cards as lost or stolen?
 
I got the same message last week. It is indeed a scam. Delete it. You could report it to PayPal, but that would require talking to PayPal which I try and avoid at all costs. ;)
 
There are many telltale signs of a fraudulent email.


  1. Sender's Email Address. To give you a false sense of security, the “From” line may include an official-looking email address that may actually be copied from a genuine one. The email address can easily be altered – it’s not an indication of the validity of any email communication.
  2. Generic Email Greeting. A typical phishing email will have a generic greeting, such as “Dear User.” Note: All PayPal emails will greet you by your first and last name.
  3. False Sense of Urgency. Most phishing emails try to deceive you with the threat that your account will be in jeopardy if it’s not updated right away. An email that urgently requests you to supply sensitive personal information is typically fraudulent.
  4. Fake Links. Many phishing emails have a link that looks valid, but sends you to a fraudulent site that may or may not have an URL different from the link. Always check where a link is going before you click. Move your mouse over the URL in the email and look at the URL in the browser. As always, if it looks suspicious, don't click it. Open a new browser window, and type https://www.paypal.com.
  5. Attachments. Similar to fake links, attachments can be used in phishing emails and are dangerous. Never click on an attachment. It could cause you to download spyware or a virus. PayPal will never email you an attachment or a software update to install on your computer.
 
I got that message years ago, but at the time did not even have a PayPal account. It's a scam. Don't give out any information unless you are logged in to your PayPal account.
 
I think companies just need to stop broadly providing links for account service activities in their e-mails, as difficult as this is, and start instead doing a better job of having details of warnings come up at login time. Phishing has become so prevalent that, even when I think an e-mail is legitimate (unless it is solicited, e.g. a receipt after making a purchase), I usually type the site name into my browser instead of using the link provided.

It's become ridiculous but necessary. :(
 
' the link bellow:'

There's a typo. To me that screams scam, professional companies don't have typing errors in their emails.
 
siurpeeman said:
i got a similar one for ebay. the link itself didn't go to ebay's site, so i didn't bother.
Click to expand...

I'll actually type in a fake login and password just for kicks. I picture some doofus scumbag trying to login in with it later. :D
 
iHerzeleid said:
Since when are companies immune to typo's?
Click to expand...

No one at PayPal is typing out the suspended account message to each person. It was written once, probably proof read 800 times and then stored for the computer to send out.
 
ITASOR said:
No one at PayPal is typing out the suspended account message to each person. It was written once, probably proof read 800 times and then stored for the computer to send out.
Click to expand...

My friend's cousin works as one of those proof-readers and he said they only read them maybe 25 times, tops.
 
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