Last week I received a paypal spam email in my inbox. Here is exactly what it said:
service <update@support.com> to Jul 20
We regret to inform you that access to your account has been temporarily limited.This has been done due to several failed log-in attempts.
To restore your account please log in correctly.
If you fail to log in correctly your account will be suspended for fraud prevention.
You will be able to register again for PayPal only after you authenticate your profile.
We apologize for the inconvenience, this measure was taken for your protection.
PayPal Security Team
Scams Using Paypal
If you have received this email beware that this is a paypal email scam. I almost fell for this scam myself. In the email paypal tells you that your account has been limited because of to many log in attempts.
The fake paypal email will then ask you to log back in after you authentic your profile. This is where all of these paypal phishing scams get you. However don’t log in, this is exactly what they want you to do. By clicking on the link provided in the paypal email scam they will then be able to track and capture your log in information.
Once inside your account they will be able to lock you out of your account and will have all of you financial information from your bank account number, credit card info, and social security number.
How Do You Know If A Paypal Email Is Authentic
Their are a couple of things you should look for if you want to know if a paypal email is authentic or not. As in this paypal spam email it raised a few red flags with me right away. So remember these tips and you can avoid being ripped off by paypal phishing scams.
- The paypal email address was a fake. In the paypal spam email the address was update@support.com This made me suspicious right away. This email address is to plain but it also doesn’t even contain the word paypal in it.
- No Greeting using your name. In a real paypal email address they will include your first and last name or business name in the greeting of the email. In this email their was no greeting or name at all. Often times paypal phishing emails will will say something along the lines, “Dear Paypal User”, or “Dear Paypal Member.”
- No safe log in. When logging in to Paypal they would never direct you to a different website other than paypal.com in order to sign in to your account. In the paypal phishing email the link went to a completely different website. If someone is asking you to log in through their website don’t do it.
- Never give your personal information. Paypal will never ask for your personal info no matter what. They already have it on file and their is no need to ask for it again. I also want to mention here that you will want to be careful who you give your Paypal log in and password to. When setting up a Paypal account make sure the log in and user name are completely original form any other password and user name you already have.
- Never download or click the links of the Paypal spam email. Paypal will never ask you to down load any programs. These sites may contain viruses that could expose your account information. The Paypal email scam may also include a link which my use what is known as a tracking cookie to compromise your user name and password as well.
What You Should Do If You’ve Been Hit By This Paypal Email Scam
First off, if you haven’t been hit by this Paypal email scam yet but you have recieved this email and have clicked on the link inside of it you will want to run your anti virus software to make sure they aren’t using any tracking software to hack into your Paypal account. If you don’t know how to do this talk to a friend of family member who can help you out.
Second, if you have been hit by this scam it is important you take a few quick action to prevent the paypal scammers from getting anything from you. First, you need to call your credit card company and put a freeze on your credit card account. This way the hackers can’t use it.
Next, inform any banks involved with your paypal account. If you have accounts linked to your paypal account it is important that you tell your bank that your paypal account has been hacked and you want the account frozen.
Finally, contact paypal about what has happened to you. They have some of the best people combating scams and fraud. Paypal also has a protection policy for those that qualify and will actually fight chargebacks on your behalf.
Have You Been Hit By This Paypal Email Scam
If you have been hit by this paypal spam email we would like to hear your story. Leave a comment below.
Chris
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I found a deal on a dress that i now know too good to be true. A woman offers to make dresses for you and send them to you from china. I was going to a wedding in a couple of months and so I wanted a great dress without spending a whole lot of money. Well, this seller was a scam. 141.00 later i am without a dress and short 141.00. Her email address is bringdress@yahoo.com. Her contact number is based out in california and is not her number. It’s a number for paypal. she strung me along until the time was up to get my money back (three months) then stopped responding to my emails. My bank said because she is overseas I can’t get my money back. Ebay was not helpful nor was paypal. I bought using paypal because your purchase is “protected”. I will never buy anything again from ebay. I feel so stupid and embarrassed that I havent really spoken of it to others but if others can learn from my mistakes then I will share my story.
Shelley, I’m sorry to hear about your situation. I have bought many things on ebay and have not once been scammed, luckily. I this situation their may not be a lot you can do but as you said get the story out and tell others about the scam. I will do a little digging for you and check out ebay to learn a little bit more about this scammer.
Also I’m wondering did you contact ebay and tell them about your situation? You still may not be able to get your money back but at least you’d be able to get this ebay seller band from ebay. Thanks for the info I will defiantly get something posted to help other ebay users.
Hey Chris, thanks for the response. I did a little more digging myself and the name she gave me, Li Tao, i now realize is the name of a famous basketball player. I filed a complaint with ebay and the sellers name, createw8, is no longer available. I checked last night. I did file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. I believe you have up to one year to file a complaint with the BBB and filing charges with them increases your chances of getting your money back. I learned a valuable lesson in all of this, never buy from someone who is overseas if you don’t know them. I now have a motto too, scam me once, shame on you, scam me twice, shame on me. Just goes to show you these people are everywhere.
Thanks for the info Shelley I’ll look into this more. Sounds like you are right on top of things by telling ebay and the BBB, they will be your best chance of seeing any money. Also let me know how your situation turns out with the BBB.
Is this a real email from paypal?
From: service@paypal.web.com
Medium riskYou may not know this sender.Mark as safe|Mark as junk
Sent: Mon 10/05/09 7:50 AM
To: _______@web.com
This email confirms that you have sent a payment for $12.23 USD to small-pack@silverhost.com.
The payment will be completed once the recipient has accepted the payment.
———————————–
Payment Details
———————————–
Amount: $12.23 USD
Transaction ID: (deleted for privacy)
A review of the transaction raised a suspicion that it may have not been authorized.
Click here to cancel this transaction.
Thank you for using PayPal!
Kate,
The question is do you have a Paypal account and did they actually take money from your account? If they did contact Paypal security immediatly. If not then they are just trying to get your information because this email looks as if they didn’t ask for you by name which Paypal would do, and finally the email address from the sender is a fake email because is says payal.web.com It shouldn’t read anything other than payal.com. Also the silverhost.com email looks to be a fake as well.
Mark the email as spam and discard it and don’t give them your info that’s obvousily what they want you to do. Thanks for the comment and the info.
Chris
I just got ripped-off on EBay a few days ago. I bought a $17 book from a seller that was listed the EBay site, and paid through PayPal. The next day, I got an email from EBay saying the seller was unauthorized, that I should try to cancel the transaction, and that they wouldn’t be responsible for any losses. I sent an email to the seller just to see if I got a response, and never did.
Anyway, EBay and PalPal have been no help at all. I got scammed about $20 after using PayPal for a purchase a few years ago, and they were useless. They haven’t improved. Meg Whitman won’t get my vote for California Governor. As Governor she’ll stick it to California residents the same way EBay and PalPay sticks it to their customers. After receiving useless form emails along the lines of “Thank you for contacting PayPal/EBay. We are not responsible. Please contact us if you need further assistance,” I’m more annoyed at EBay and PalPal than I am the scam artists. At least with a credit card I’d be able to call the credit card company and try to reverse the transaction.
It seems like they ought to hold payments in escrow for a week or two in case problems like this arise.
Steve, I’m sorry to hear about your situation. I’m just wondering, have you filed a dispute with PayPal? The reason I ask is because you have 45 days from the time you buy the product through PayPal to file a dispute, then once you file a dispute after 10 days if the seller doesn’t respond you can escalate the dispute to a claim. The scam is called an eBay seller scam. You can read more about file a dispute at this article: http://stumbleforward.com/2009/09/25/how-to-avoid-ebay-seller-scams/
I hope this helps let me know how things go.
Look out for http://www.paypaI.com a capital I instead of a L….sneaky
Chis,
Good eye Chris. Most people won’t catch on to that little misspelling, I know I didn’t when I saw it the fist time. I had to look twice to figure it out. I tried looking for the site but it’s already been taken down. Thanks for the info.
Good Afternoon,
I recently listed an item on ebay for $3900 and buy it now for $4000.
These are some emails from two different addresses I have recieved that I am suspicious about. The paypal link appears to link to the correct website. The only thing I can think of is later on they may request bank details?
Regards Justin
Emailer A
Hi thanks for mailing back,i am an oceanographer, i am at sea right now,i am buying this for my son as a surprise gift and I am glad you accepted my offer.I can only pay through paypal at the moment as i dont have access to my bank account online(i dont have internet banking with it),but i have it attached to my paypal account, and this is why i insisted on using paypal to pay,all i will need is your paypal email address to make the payments,and if you dont have a paypal account yet,its pretty easy to set one up at http://www.paypal.com.au,i will be expecting your email.I have a pick up agent that will come for the pick up after payments has been sorted.
Emailer A
Hi Do you still have it for sale? i will like to make an offer $5,500 for this,payments will be through paypal and i will arrange the pick up well. Cheers, Mark.
Emailer B
Dear seller,
i was just glancing through ebay.com.au because i need to buy your item,it a very lovely item you have gotten here and I am interested in buying it outrightly.For a quick sale, I will pay you 8000.00aud for it. I was planning going on physically to purchase the item but could not due to the nature of my work as i am always on the move cos I am a marine engineer and I work with an International shipping company.the item will be picked up at your location by my pick up agent I will be paying with my paypal account.so please do reply me asap with your paypal account or send me a payment request from your paypal account so i can effect payment to you rightaway.I await your reply
NB:Honestly, I do not know the actual worth of this item because I?m always busy sailing. If my offer is not ok, Let me know so i can shoot up abit or bring it down as the case maybe.Hope to hear from you soon.
Regards
WOW
I got same email too. I was suspicious this contact way I just look this is scammer or not.. anyway this is fraud.. I will show what i got
First
Hi Do you still have it for sale? i will like to make an offer of $3,300 for this vehicle,payments will be made through paypal and i will arrange for the pick up as well. Cheers,
David.
Second
Hi thanks for mailing back,i am an oceanographer, i am at sea right now,i am buying this for my son as a surprise gift and I am glad you accepted my offer.I can only pay through paypal at the moment as i dont have access to my bank account online(i dont have internet banking with it),but i have it attached to my paypal account, and this is why i insisted on using paypal to pay,all i will need is your paypal email address to make the payments,and if you dont have a paypal account yet,its pretty easy to set one up at http://www.paypal.com,i will be expecting your email.I have a pick up agent that will come for the pick up after payments has been sorted.
I got an email from “PayPal”…
Dear PayPal user,
We recently reviewed your account and suspect that your PayPal account may have been accessed by an unauthorized third party. Protecting the security of your account and of the PayPal network is our primary concern therefore we have temporarily limited access to sensitive PayPal account features.
To restore your account access please take the following steps to ensure that your account has not been compromised:
1. Confirm your identity by completing the account verification process.
2. Click the “Confirm” button at the bottom of this page. You will be taken to the Data Security and Encryption page.
3. Login to your PayPal account and review your recent account history for any unauthorized payments sent or received and check your account profile to make sure no changes have been made. If any unauthorized activity has taken place on your account report this to PayPal immediately.
To get started please click the “Get Started” link below.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and appreciate your assistance in helping us maintain the integrity of the entire PayPal system. Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.
Thank you for using PayPal!
PayPal Support
It looked official. I stupidly clicked the link provided and went to log in…then it asked me to update my banking info and personal info. That is when I closed it and went to PayPal directly. Logged in and it has no history ever on it! Now I am going to get an antivirus software. I am not happy about this.
i listed my car for sale on a local website.
i recieved an email as soon as the add went up this morning, the email aske if the car was available and then i got this:
Thanks for the prompt response.I will like to know more about its condition and possibly have more pictures of it I will be very glad to have more pictures of it.Do as well advise on the least amount you will like to give it away. I will be very glad to conclude this as soon as possible.Due to the nature of my work, I’m an oceanist,i am at sea right now, and I am glad if you can let me know the actual price you want to give the car out and i will be paying through paypal at the moment as i do not have access to my bank account online,but i have it attached to my paypal account,and this is why i insisted on using paypal to pay,all i will need is your paypal email address to make the payment,and if you do not have a paypal account yet,its pretty easy to set one up at http://www.paypal.com,i will be expecting your email.I have a pick up agent that willcome for the pick up after payment has been sorted.Email me
here.
Brellia.