New Scam

Bobl1958 · Jan 21, 2014

Here is the latest scam I got yesterday. I received an email from paypal saying a charge had been made to my paypal account. Now I'm telling you, this email looked real. It was a charge for something I definitely didn't purchase. It made it look like PayPal was concerned that this charge may not be valid. It gave me a link to click on if I thought this was a bogus charge to cancel it. I clicked on to the link, just to see what it was.
The page that came up had the PayPal headings, colors, and everything just like the real PayPal. Of course, at that point it was asking me to log on to my account and cancel the transaction.
I was pretty sure it wasn't legit, so I forwarded the original email to PayPal spam. They sent and email back within 5 minutes saying someone was phishing for my info and took care of it.
I'm just here to say that it was so perfectly disguised that I am sure they get 9 out of 10 people. The catch they have is making you think someone charged something to your account, and you immediately want to get it off. Pretty tricky. Bob

Steve@Advance · Jan 21, 2014

Yep, there was one going around supposed to be from UPS saying they had an undeliverable package for you. Same trick, looked real.

One other thing, clicking on a "link" is risky business too. That's how viruses get into your computer, or so I'm told.

Bob · Jan 21, 2014

Next time DON"T click on it or open it!

Simply log into your REAL PP account, and verify there"s no message for you there.

Billy Shafer · Jan 21, 2014

Got the same one. Even though I don't have a Paypal account.

dr sportster · Jan 21, 2014

If a con man looked like a con man he couldn't con anyone.

RESLLS · Jan 21, 2014

I got that one a couple months ago.
The one i got today was from "Charles Francis Feeney, a philanthropist and founder of the Atlantic Philanthropies, the largest foundation in the world" going to divide 1.9 mil to randomly selected individuals. Ain't I lucky!

Anonymous-0 · Jan 21, 2014

The first clue the email is bogus is the "from" address. It won't be from PayPal, UPS, FEDEX, or whoever it was supposed to be from. It might only be a minor misspelling.

The second clue is the zip file attached to the message, which you are instructed to open to file your claim/report the problem/collect a million dollars/whatever. That file includes a virus or a ransomware program.

rustyacres sd · Jan 21, 2014

I don't even open ones from my bank since Well F. has had scams based on them also. I hardly do any automatic bill pays because of all the hackers and such. Paranoid, but safe. Wife got a new card from her bank because of the Target hack.

Bob · Jan 21, 2014

Here's some interesting reading on the subject...

http://email.about.com/cs/spamgeneral/a/spam_headers.htm

http://pctech.invisibill.net/?page_id=30

Dick2 · Jan 21, 2014

We've had those emails too. Problem is, we've never had a PayPall account!

Jiles · Jan 21, 2014

(quoted from post at 19:23:40 01/21/14) Next time DON"T click on it or open it!

Simply log into your REAL PP account, and verify there"s no message for you there.

I agree---I [b:88e4ab8a61]never[/b:88e4ab8a61] click on a link in my eMail!
If I do anything, I copy and paste---even that [b:88e4ab8a61]may be risky[/b:88e4ab8a61]????

JOB · Jan 21, 2014

Do you or anyone else know how these scum bags get
your e-mail address?

My wife gets an e-mail every couple of days that
says Kathy it is at, then the link, then put a
first name.

The e-mails have escalated after the Target thing
so I think they might be related.

Dennis K (WA) · Jan 21, 2014

Got the same Paypal one this morning. Did not click the link, instead checked my acct, looked ok, then called Paypal. Was told a fake and nothing on my acct.
You are right, great look alike, BEWARE.
Dennis

Royse · Jan 21, 2014

"Do you or anyone else know how these scum bags get
your e-mail address?"

Companies that you do legitimate business with collect email
addresses and then sell them to the highest bidder.

Firestone paid a software company I worked for a [i:970980c50f][b:970980c50f]lot[/b:970980c50f][/i:970980c50f] of money
to add an email column to a database so they could collect them.
That was about 15 years ago, so it's nothing new.

RandyB(MI) · Jan 21, 2014

I got the same one and just the fact that it came into my Spam in the first place put up the red flag. Did like others and logged into my acct only to find no such charge. That's why I just delete my spam every night without looking at them. This one just cought my eye because it was at the top.

old bc · Jan 21, 2014

If you think a link in an email is bad you can park the cursor over the it and look at the bottom left of the screen and it will show the real address of the link and it will probably not be paypal.com.

just another old geezer · Jan 22, 2014

got several of those over the last two years. I never log onto any site from a link. only log on when you go directly to a site yourself.

mkirsch · Jan 22, 2014

It's really one of the oldest tricks on the book. They make it look official.

Two BIG rules to remember:

1. They won't send you an email for a problem like that.

2. When they do send you an email, they will NEVER provide a link for you to click on. They will instruct you to log into your account manually.

Next time you get an email like this, hover your mouse pointer over the link. The address will appear either in a "pop up" or at the bottom of the email window. If it's paypal, and the link does not say "something.paypal.com" then it's FAKE.

You NEVER want to click on these because even if you don't put in your login and password, they can install viruses on your system. The login/password is just icing on the cake.

JOHNNYfromMI · Jan 22, 2014

I get things like that from pay pal often.
The best part is I never had a pay pal account.

EricInSEI · Jan 22, 2014

I've received those type of E-mails from major banks. I've always had an account with a locally owned bank so I knew they were fake.

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