Paypal scam email warning

GaryKelly · Post by **GaryKelly** » Fri Mar 05, 2004 2:22 am

Hello all,

Just thought I'd share this with you, which I received this very morning:

"Dear - (my email address!),

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, as a preventative measure, we have temporarily limited access to sensitive PayPal account features. Click below in order to regain access to your account:

(link removed by me!!)

For more information about how to protect your account, please visit PayPal's Security Center, accessible via the "Security Center" link located at the bottom of each page of the PayPal website. 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.

Sincerely,
The PayPal Team
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 header of any
page.
PayPal Email ID PP198
PayPal Email
ID PP316"

It's really rather clever (well, not really). They even managed to make the link look like a "paypal.com" link. But. If you fall for it and click on the link that's provided in their email, you get magically transported here:

http://iranaikido.com/image/***/webscr.dll

Which is an exact duplicate of the Paypal log-in page, (and it also opens up a second browser with the genuine Paypal front page in!). And of course, if you type in your username and password...well, you can guess the rest. (oh, and I've spoiled the link above with the *'s. If you're really really sure want to see it working, remove the "***/" from the url. BUT DON'T enter any information on that page!!).

Be Alert, fellow chiffsters. Dale needs more lerts.

Jon C. · Post by **Jon C.** » Sat Mar 06, 2004 10:35 pm

Had a friend that fell for this! He had to run down to the bank and change all his accounts. What a drag!
A little voice in his head kept telling him not to fill it out, it wasn't until he clicked OK that he realized what had happened.

Jon

clarinetnut · Post by **clarinetnut** » Sun Mar 07, 2004 1:29 am

And they're persistent (whoever "they" is). I got three of those in a row. I reported the first to Paypal and received a response that they had looked into it and that it was indeed a scam (duh). They thanked me for reporting it and said they would investigate further.

Jerry Freeman · Post by **Jerry Freeman** » Sun Mar 07, 2004 4:59 am

These scams come around every now and then. There are PayPal targeted ones and eBay targeted ones.

If you ever get an email asking you to "resubmit account information," forward the email in its entirety to spoof@paypal.com or spoof@ebay.com, and they'll deal with it.

Best wishes,
Jerry

glauber · Post by **glauber** » Sun Mar 07, 2004 5:58 am

Use the "forward as attachment" option if you have it (rather than quoting the text of the email). Some stuff that doesn't normally get displayed (called "email headers") is what they most want to see at paypal or eBay, since it helps them track the path that the email took from the bad guys to you and sometimes it helps them figure out ways to block it.

Jon C. · Post by **Jon C.** » Sun Mar 07, 2004 3:16 pm

Hi,
One of the challenges with spam and these scams is that they use a "one time" address. When you try to block it by entering the address in your anti-junk email folder, it can't filter it because the address is different!
I have someone from Hong Kong hitting me with spam about 5 a day, no way to stop them. I tryed spamming them back, with there own spam, but that was time consuming... Jon

glauber · Post by **glauber** » Sun Mar 07, 2004 3:59 pm

Sometimes this works:
http://www.spamcop.net/
http://www.spamcop.net/anonsignup.shtml
When the amount of spam i that gets through my cheap Yahoo mailbox starts annoying me i start systematically submitting it to "spamcop", and usually it decreases sharply. Spamcop is very good at finding where the spam is coming from, and it generates automatic reports to the mail admins. Many mail admins hate spamcop for flooding them with reports, but it works. Spamcop also feeds some of the spam filters, so reporting to them you're helping filter some of these Basmatis.

Use responsibly!