DDolfelin Posted September 16, 2011 Share Posted September 16, 2011 Received today. Dangerous if one is asleep at the keyboard: DON'T CLICK ON THE LINKS! It says 'Receipt for payment' of £18 to some subscription or other then directs you to click on the 'Cancel Payment' link if the payment is unauthorised. It doesn't use your name, just 'PayPal User'. Apart from that it looks very genuine. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Max Stafford Posted September 16, 2011 Share Posted September 16, 2011 I always find it's useful to check the source on messages I'm unsure of. If there's any hint of a connection with Africa or Eastern Europe, give it a wide berth! Dave. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted September 16, 2011 Share Posted September 16, 2011 DON'T CLICK ON THE LINKS! Really that's the best advice you can give. Anything that appears to come from PayPal, your bank or whatever. Never click the links in the message. Always go straight to the main website via your browser. That way you know you're in the right place. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
KevinWalsh Posted September 16, 2011 Share Posted September 16, 2011 There is a number of these doing the rounds at the moment, best thing to do is forward to spoof@paypal.com if it is a genuine one they will contact you using your registered details as verification and tell you what to do next. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold beast66606 Posted September 16, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted September 16, 2011 if it is a genuine one they will contact you using your registered details as verification and tell you what to do next. PayPal will NEVER contact you in this way, if you have any reason to suspect it's valid then logon to PayPal by typing the address into the browser, do not click links, the same rules apply if it's a bank or building society. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DDolfelin Posted September 16, 2011 Author Share Posted September 16, 2011 Yes, obviously I've taken my own precautions and passed on the message to PayPal. This is just a reminder to others who may be fooled in a moment of inattention. I won't be the only one who has received this message today. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonny777 Posted September 16, 2011 Share Posted September 16, 2011 I have had a few purporting to be from Ebay, saying that the item that I purchased has not been paid for and if I dont respond they will take legal action and suspend my account. It all looks very genuine with a long Ebay-like item number, and initially made me quite worried that I had accidentally forgotten to pay for a purchase, but a quick visit to the genuine Ebay site showed me all items won and whether paid or not. Even after the multitude of warnings, there must be folk who do still respond to phishing such as this, otherwise it would not be worth doing it. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bernard Lamb Posted September 16, 2011 Share Posted September 16, 2011 Had the Paypal one the other day. They were not very clever as they sent it to one email address that I use, but not to the one that is associated with Paypal. Bernard Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
crompton 33 Posted September 16, 2011 Share Posted September 16, 2011 Had the Paypal one the other day. They were not very clever as they sent it to one email address that I use, but not to the one that is associated with Paypal. Bernard bernard. ditto i got one just the same as you. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium NGT6 1315 Posted September 18, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted September 18, 2011 Yeah, I also got two of these over the past few days. Both were automatically sorted out as spam, though. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold beast66606 Posted September 18, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted September 18, 2011 Had the Paypal one the other day. They were not very clever as they sent it to one email address that I use, but not to the one that is associated with Paypal. Bernard They don't know you have two addresses they simply spam addresses, they don't go looking for individuals ... To repeat the other advice (aside from don't click on the links) - DON'T reply to these, even with advice as to where their offers can be located, the email address is then known to be live and becomes a saleable commodity to the spammers, 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horsetan Posted September 19, 2011 Share Posted September 19, 2011 Anyhow, the e-mail headers usually tell you where the spoof mail originates from, after which you can then forward it on to PayPal itself. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Webbo Posted September 19, 2011 Share Posted September 19, 2011 They don't know you have two addresses they simply spam addresses, they don't go looking for individuals ... To repeat the other advice (aside from don't click on the links) - DON'T reply to these, even with advice as to where their offers can be located, the email address is then known to be live and becomes a saleable commodity to the spammers, I just delete the message. webbo Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kenton Posted September 19, 2011 Share Posted September 19, 2011 Anyhow, the e-mail headers usually tell you where the spoof mail originates from, after which you can then forward it on to PayPal itself. Not always - they can be hijacked or forged. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horsetan Posted September 19, 2011 Share Posted September 19, 2011 Not always - they can be hijacked or forged. No, not the the simple "From:" bit, but the actual headers, which show the routing taken by the message. eBay and PayPal use their own specific ones. Everybody else (i.e. fraudsters / hackers, etc.) goes through a different routing, and these always reveal that the servers, etc. are non-eBay/non-PayPal ones. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DDolfelin Posted September 19, 2011 Author Share Posted September 19, 2011 Update: I received a follow-up from the same scrotes. Sent it to 'Spoof at Paypal'. PayPal replied (this time) saying that they had verified that it wasn't a scam. I wrote back saying that if it wasn't a scam then kindly repay me the money they have mistakenly taken from my account. They replied with a copy of the reply saying it wasn't a scam. Initially they inferred that they were hot on the trail of the crooks and all but awarded me a medal for helping my fellow e-Bayers. Totally useless waste of space. But then we knew that. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold beast66606 Posted September 20, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted September 20, 2011 Hilarious .. email from Paypal with the footnote How do I know this is not a Spoof email? Spoof or ‘phishing’ emails tend to have generic greetings such as "Dear PayPal member". Emails from PayPal will always address you by your first and last name. Find out more here Addressed to Dear Value Member, So I followed their own advice and ignored it as a generic email ! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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