Is This On The Up And UP?

[Vintage Racer]

I got the following email from Pay Pal:

Dear valued PayPal member:

It has come to out attention that your PayPal account informations needs to
be updated as . part of .our continuing. commitment to protect .your account
and to reduce the instance of .fraud on our website. If you .could please take
5-10 minutes out of your online experience and update your personal records
you will not run into any futur problems with the online services.

However, failure to update your records will result in account suspension.
Please update your records on or before October 2, 2005.

Once you have updated. your account records, your PayPal session will not
be interrupted and will continue as normal.

To update your PayPal records click on the following link:
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=

Thank you for using Paypal !
The PayPal Update Team.

Accounts Management As outlined in our User Agreement, PayPal will
periodically send you information about site changes and enhancements.




PayPal Email ID PP243


The link asks me for financial information (credit card/bank account) which they already have. I contacted Pay Pal without getting a response. E Bay, who owns Pay Pal, says it's a fraud but their response is a form letter.

Anyone have any experience with this with Pay Pal?

Thanks.

 

[99 R/T 10]

No, it's not. Never click on a link sent. Always type in the address yourself.

 

[Gerald Levin]

I had a similar paypal scam that a new email address was added to my paypal account, etc. etc. I immediately called paypal customer support. A quick way to tell if the email from paypal is real is that your name is ALWAYS in the opening line. This is what paypal customer support told me. If your real name is not included in the opening line then it is a scam and definitely don't click on any of the links.

 

[big-n-italian]

it appears that the very old "ebay" scam has worked its way into other venues.

gerald is 100% correct.

 

[cyaford]

Are you guys sure this is a scam? I re-entered my information when asked, a few weeks ago. Nothing happened to my accounts at that time. I'm sure it's a coincidence that my bank accounts were emptied out yesterday. I'm thinking it's a bank error in my favor. Even if it's not, I'm not worried about it. I sent some Nigerian offical $20,000.00 a few months ago to secure a $2,000,000.00 inheritance from one of my relatives whose family was tragically killed over there. It should be here any day, hopefully. Probably held up in customs. I have no idea who the relatives are, as I have never heard of them, but if a Nigerian high ranking official says it's true, then it has to be true, right? I would suggest that their officials learn how to write a little better.

 

[ViperJoe]

Come on.......a bank etc etc etc will NEVER ask for info over the net.

Forward the email to

[email protected]

or

[email protected]

 

[Vintage Racer]

Thanks fro the help. Here's the response I got from Paypal:

Thank you for contacting PayPal. We appreciate you bringing this
suspicious email to our attention.

Commonly referred to as phishing, these emails are sent by fraudsters in
an attempt to collect sensitive personal or financial information from
the recipients. PayPal takes phishing threats seriously. Our fraud
prevention specialists are working 24/7 to help protect you and enable
the community to stay safe.

After review, we can confirm that the email you received was not sent by
PayPal. Any website which may be linked to this email is not authorized
or used by PayPal.

Our fraud prevention team is working to disable any website linked to
this email. In the meantime, please do not enter any information into
this website. If you have already done so, you should immediately log
into your PayPal account and change your password, as well as your
security questions and answers. We also recommend that you contact your
bank and credit card company immediately.

If you notice any unauthorized activity on your PayPal account, please
report it to us by following the instructions below:

1. Log in to your account only from the PayPal website. Do not use
links provided in any email.

2. Click on the Security Center link at the bottom of the page.

3. Click on the 'Unauthorized Transaction' link under the Report a
Problem column.

4. Follow the instructions on this page in order to access the
appropriate form.

Lastly, we recommend taking a few steps to protect yourself from
identity theft:

> Download the SafetyBar, a toolbar for Outlook and Outlook Express,
which identifies known spoof emails.
> Get eBay Toolbar with Account Guard which warns you when you're on a
potentially fraudulent (spoof) Web site.
> Frequently monitor your account for suspicious activity.

For additional tips please visit the PayPal Security Center at
http://www.paypal.com/security.

Once again, thank you for reporting this suspicious email. Your
vigilance helps us in our efforts to protect the PayPal community. If
you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us again.

Sincerely,

PayPal
______________________________

Important: PayPal and its representatives will NEVER ask you to reveal
your password. There are NO EXCEPTIONS to this policy. If anyone
claiming to work for PayPal asks for your password under any
circumstances, by email or by phone, please refuse and immediately
contact us via our secure webform online.

 

[Gus Strakes]

I get a couple of these each week, and I always forward them to [email protected] or [email protected] as applicable.
The sure way to tell is to right click anywhere on the email, and when the menu pops up choose "View Source". This will open up notepad with the email exposed with all it's source code. Now you can do a search for "http", and you will ultimately find that they are trying to link you to a bogus sight.

 

[zoomie]

rofl cyaford. go get 'em.