I read somewhere recently on the internet or in a real live newspaper about some paypal scam like this going around; to be very careful. I guess this must be it in glowing lights and living color. Wish I can recall where I saw the article? Was a week and a half ago I think.

I HAVE received several quasi-paypal emails warning me my account requires verification, and at first was partially fooled by the email address having paypal's domain in the address...but as I moved deeper into the screens, I stopped.....it was not right. They will send you a series of emails, with escallating urgency that your account will soon be partially or fully shut down BECAUSE YOU DID NOT RESPOND to prior emails. I checked at PayPal and it is not legit. ::::: Opera :::::

These types of scams are constantly going around. Paypal NEVER asks you to verify your information in an email. From Paypal's site: How do I report a fake PayPal email or website? If you think you have received a fake email pretending to be from PayPal, forward the entire email to spoof@paypal.com and then delete it from your email account. If you came across a fake PayPal website, contact our Customer Service team.

I got a few too and sent it to paypal to check it out. They told me they ALWAYS address each letter by the name of the person they are sending it to. Shish have to have eyes everywhere for these scumbuckets!

Also if you are unsure of the source go to www.paypal.com ( by typing it in a browser), and any updates or info that they need from you will be right their on your screen.

I got one like this that said that someone was trying to use my account and I had better get them the information quick or they would shut me down. No detailed questions of course!! about whether it was really me or not. Very interesting especially since I have never been able to clear up a snafu and can not even use "my account" myself. Obviously I did not respond.

Just received an answer from PayPay as follows - FYI.

*Dear Bob G,

Thank you for contacting PayPal.

We appreciate you bringing this suspicious email to our attention. We can confirm that the email you received was not sent to you by PayPal. The website linked to this email is not a registered URL authorized or used by PayPal. We are currently investigating this incident fully.
Please do not enter any personal or financial information into this website.

If you have surrendered any personal or financial information to this fraudulent website, you should immediately log into your PayPal Account and change your password and secret question and answer information. Any
compromised financial information should be reported to the appropriate parties.

If you notice any unauthorized activity associated with your PayPal transaction history, please immediately report this to PayPal by following the instructions below:

1. Log in to your account at https://www.paypal.com/ by entering your email address and password into the Member Log In box

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

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

4. Please follow the instructions in order to access the appropriate form

If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us again.

Sincerely,
PayPal Account Review Department*

ABC = Always Be Careful !

cheers,
dr geep
;=]

Yep, got this same one or very similar about 6 to 8 months ago, with the further escalating warnings of account closure. About the same time a friend at work got a spoofed ebay account information request. They were sharper and used an activeX button to initiate the reply, thereby hiding their own url from the casual user. They were even going so far as to link their graphics (ebay icons & such) back to ebays real website graphics! No wonder it looked dead on legit! As PayPal, ebay, or even rendo marketplace will tell ya, they already have all that information, they'll never ask you for it. Thanks for bringing this to everyone's attention, dr geep. Mike K

I got a few of those in my email when I opened my Daz account for the freebies. I hate PayPal.

Thanks Doc!!!! -jay

I had one of those and not even a paypal customer. lol. So I just typed in their addy and found where to send that spoof. oh, be on the look out for the same kind of letter from ebay. I got one of those too and I'm not a member there either.

Thanks for the warning. As it happens, I'm in the middle of setting up a full 'verified' account with Paypal, so I would have been a full 'verified' sucker for this email if it had arrived about now!

I also got one of those today and I don't have a paypal account either... lol Hubby says he receives them all the time and yup, from ebay too...

Thanks for bring this to our attention Geep :P I too have gotten one of these.. and an Ebay one also. Best thing to do is report it. :)

As Paypal always says on their website, whenever you receive 'an email' from Paypal, go to your browser and go to the Paypal website directly from there, not clicking on any links in the email. Email links can take you to a spoof site. And some spoofs are pretty hard to detect as such.

I have the following bit of javascript saved in my links. Not 100% effective but it can often reveal the true address of a site if you think the url shown in the address bar is being faked. javascript:alert("Actual%20URL%20address:%20"%20+%20location.protocol%20+%20"//"%20+%20location.hostname%20+%20"/");

The single biggest tipoff that it's a scam (phishing, it's called)- it DOESN'T ADDRESS YOU BY NAME. These scams have been going on long enough that no responsible financial institution would EVER contact you in this fashion. And the fact that it doesn't refer to you by your actual name is just proof that all they have is an EMail address, usually one of a block of several hundred or thousands they've either bought, harvested, or auto-generated themselves in hopes that a few would be gullible and anxious enough to fall for it. Despite the risk of being accused of launching a personal attack in the forums, I have to honestly say that these are the work possibly the most despicable irresponsible predatory scum at large on the internet. . . . just my own 2 cents worth, opposing opinions will be dismissed or derided . . . G

I get these all the time, most about PayPal and WAMU. I don't even have a WAMU account. EBay now has a message system that they use to send messages to you so any messages from them only show up after you log in. They don't send e-mails to your e-mail accounts anymore because of this.

Watchout for bogus Newsletters too. Contains the same type of messages in them. If I buy anything from DAZ I use my CC, not PayPal. PayPal for the freebies is onething but I would never give them my info or open up and account with them, not trustworthy at all. Someone also told me that PayPal sells their user names & email addresses. (MHO)

First of all, there's bad grammar used in that e-mail. Secondly, paypal ALWAYS uses httpS: (or nearly always) for their url's. And, they never send e-mails saying to update your personal info. These scams have been going on for as long as people have been using the internet. I get e-mails like that all the time from various sites I do, or have done, business with/at in the past. I always ignore them and have never had any accounts shut down or blocked because I didn't update my info. E.D.

Yeah, PayPal, eBay, and all the banks (WAMU, Citi, SunTrust, whatever) get used like this in an effort to discover a real phish at the end of the scumbag's line. Most of the phishers will mock PayPal or eBay because of the sheer popularity of those sites. Real sites will always address you by your own name. Real sites won't ask you to click a link and hand them your ID on a platter. Real sites have their letters checked for grammer before they get sent to valued customers. But, figure this, if even .00002% of the recipients are foolish enough to click a link and type in their financial data, that is still a lot of people who are at risk. Carolly

I got one similar after I made a payment to Jasc thru DIGITAL RIVER. Then they dinged my account twice and I had to wait 11 days for paypal to clear the second order. Someone posted somewhere that their credit card # was stolen and used immediately after she ordered Poser6 thru DIGITAL RIVER. I called DR twice and it's the most worthless customer service I have ever seen. That's why I am NOT going to preorder Poser6 thru Curious Labs. Digital River is the only way to pay for it.

Attached Link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8587-2005Mar4.html

Very useful information. Thanks Geep. I never received anything like this but if I ever do, I'll know what to do about it. This kind of things is an occasion for me to realize how I am lucky to be French Speaking. We don't receive a fraction of all the scams you receive and many times, we know outright it is a scam or a virus because it is written in English.;o) France

I've had several emails asking me to do this too, the thing is I've never even had a paypal account! so I figured it was all very suspect.

I get at least 4 of these a week. The current favorites are WAMU and Paypal. Before that, it was Citizen's Bank and CitiBank. If you ever get one that you think could be remotely credible, CALL the company. A friend of mine almost got ripped off because she got an e-mail supposedly from her cable company saying she had to re-register all her payment information. Thankfully she called up to complain and found out it was a phising scam.

I've had several of these over the past couple of years, the last one had me laughing and spitting out my coffee 'cos they were asking for my card PIN number on top of everything else. Of course I sent the entire thing to PayPal, as usual, and they told me what they told you, and that was what I already knew that PayPal will never ask you for such details, ever. All you can say is it's annoying and what idiots they must think people are, although there are such idiot's 'cos that's why it still goes on. 8) Catlin

Last month some bonehead tried to scam me out of my comcast account info, I gave him/her/it the wanted info, lot of good it'll do since I made up everything as I went even down a visa number. But even if the number I cooked up exists the person involved would have to be named Fred J. Muggs and live at 1432 Franklin Pike Circle, Buttsqueek Ar don't remember the zipcode :-)

I get those all the time - I usually forward it to PayPal's Spoof dept. Then, for kicks, I reply to the fake email and fill in my own bogus info. Name: Nonyer Biz Address: 555 Nowhere's Ville City: Kissmybutt State: Yougottabekidding Zip: 55555 Credit card Number: 4111111111111111 [This is the number used for testing shopping carts. It's not real.] Exp: 02/1891 And on and on. Figure I may as well play with them since they are trying to play with me! LOL