Another (quite convincing) Paypal phish

magellan · April 28, 2007 12:59AM

I received this email today........it had my real name in the greeting, these guys are getting good. Luckily I went to my Paypal account directly to check on it and also forwarded to spoof@paypal.com

Dear David xxxxxxx,
PayPal is committed to maintaining a safe environment for its community of buyers and sellers. To protect the security of your account, we employ the most advanced security systems in the world and regularly screen our system for unusual activity.

Recently, our Account Review Team identified some unusual activity in your account. Per PayPal's user agreement, we have limited access to your account until this issue has been resolved. This is a fraud prevention measure meant to ensure that your account is not compromised.

In order to secure your account and quickly restore full access, we require some specific information from you.

Login follow our secure site and update all necessary informations to your account.

Click here to restore your account access

Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. Please understand that this is a security measure meant to help protect you and your account. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Sincerely,
PayPal Account Review Department.

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

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 footer of any page.

PayPal Email ID PP2359
Copyright© 2007, PayPal Inc., All rights reserved. Designated trademarks and brands are the property of their respective owners.
Protect Your Account Info
Make sure you never provide your password to fraudulent websites.

To safely and securely access the PayPal website or your account, open a new web browser (e.g. Internet Explorer or Netscape) and type in the PayPal login page (http://paypal.com/) to be sure you are on the real PayPal site.

PayPal will never ask you to enter your password in an email.

For more information on protecting yourself from fraud, please review our Security Tips at https://www.paypal.com/us/securitytips

Protect Your Password
You should never give your PayPal password to anyone.

ctsoxfan · April 28, 2007 1:09AM

I got the same thing last night, and forwarded it to spoof@paypal.com as well. This one looks as much like a real PayPal email as you can get, like Dave mentions above, and uses your own real full name (and has the security warning box on it as well, telling you to only log into PayPal from the real site!).

Be careful with this one.

SoonerCowboy · April 28, 2007 1:14AM

Yes, you have to have been living in a cave for a couple of years to fall for these. I received an email yesterday from what it looked like from a seller with the message: "have you decided yet". I went to ebay and the seller didn't exist. So I proceeded to send a "reply" not a "respond now"(which you would have to enter your password) message cursing rant telling the sender to enjoy the virus I just sent them. Oh the "seller" was pacific-real-estate. Just in case anyone else gets one.

jmbkb4 · April 28, 2007 1:16AM

ANY EMAIL YOU RECEIVE FROM "PAYPAL" SHOULD NOT BE CLICKED ON. JUST LOG IN TO YOUR ACCOUNT AND -- IF GENUINE -- WILL BE THERE.

itzagoner · April 28, 2007 1:41AM

lemme guess......there was a picture of a smiling, butt-fugly woman in the message, too

1989FleerBillRipkencollector · April 28, 2007 2:13AM

Hey the "Have you decided yet" from a real estate ebay name ? I got that one too. I wanted to reply- " Yes I have and your an idiot"

Im still waiting for my $$ I won from the Irish lottery. Its been awhile, Im getting worried. Unsure why they wanted so much financial information but it will be worth it when the check comes...

Sincerly,holding my breath in Ca.

Estil · April 28, 2007 3:03AM

Back in 2003 (long before these phony emails were really well known), I received a very convincing one claiming to be from Ebay. And I probably would've fell for the whole thing, hook, line, and sinker had the form not gotten greedy and asked for bank account information (which Ebay never uses at all).

storm888 · April 28, 2007 3:15AM

"ANY EMAIL YOU RECEIVE FROM "PAYPAL" SHOULD NOT BE CLICKED ON.
JUST LOG IN TO YOUR ACCOUNT AND -- IF GENUINE -- WILL BE THERE. "

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Sadly, this advisory has to be repeatedly offered.

Jdurg · April 28, 2007 3:45AM

Last time I got one of these "phishing e-mails" I just responded and imbedded a picture of some dude showing his prostate to the world and also threw in there a nasty little virus that a friend of mine sends off to any phising scams or spam e-mails he ever gets.

magellan · April 28, 2007 3:46AM

<< Sadly, this advisory has to be repeatedly offered. >>

There are new people coming on to eBay & Paypal all the time...they do need to be warned. This is the first scam that's ever used my actual name from either Paypal or eBay.....a new dimension to these things.

grilloj39 · April 28, 2007 3:54AM

About 5 percent of those who receive phishing emails do actually click on the link and enter the sensitive information about themselves. Considering the amount of phishing emails rec'd, that is quite a high rate. Of course, IE 7 does come with a phishing filter, and Firefox has a built-in feature to warn those of forged websites, but it is best to simply never click on an email link about the need to enter sensitive information about yourself.

jskirwin · April 28, 2007 3:59AM

<< Login follow our secure site and update all necessary informations to your account. >>

As an ex-English teacher for ESL students, I'm not surprised that they can't get the grammar perfect. However, until that sentence the message was actually well written.

MooseDog · April 28, 2007 4:46AM

<< Im still waiting for my $$ I won from the Irish lottery. Its been awhile, Im getting worried. Unsure why they wanted so much financial information but it will be worth it when the check comes...

Sincerly,holding my breath in Ca. >>

Hey, I thought I won that Irish Lottery!!!???

1989FleerBillRipkencollector · April 28, 2007 5:16AM

<< 

<< Im still waiting for my $$ I won from the Irish lottery. Its been awhile, Im getting worried. Unsure why they wanted so much financial information but it will be worth it when the check comes...

Sincerly,holding my breath in Ca. >>

Hey, I thought I won that Irish Lottery!!!??? >>

No,no,no it was me. It was addressed to Dear Winner. Thats me!! My Mom used to call me that. How they knew that, ....well they're good. You probally got one of them fake email things. Im about 10% Irish so me winnnig makes sense. You might of won another one.

On a sidenote I just got a steal on a bridge.

ElectricPrune · April 28, 2007 5:38AM

I got the same e-mail. Luckily, i guess, I just went to PayPal instead of clicking the link. There really are some true as***les out there.

BigRedMachine · April 28, 2007 5:47AM

<< Last time I got one of these "phishing e-mails" I just responded and imbedded a picture of some dude showing his prostate to the world and also threw in there a nasty little virus that a friend of mine sends off to any phising scams or spam e-mails he ever gets.

>>

That, is funny stuff.

shawn

storm888 · April 28, 2007 7:31AM

<< Sadly, this advisory has to be repeatedly offered. >>

There are new people coming on to eBay & Paypal all the time...they do need to be warned.

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Yup.

Sadly, it is so.

Another (quite convincing) Paypal phish

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