PayPal scam?

[king ubu]

I got this mail and Opera and AntiVir are going berserk over it... not sure what's the deal, but Opera won't open the page linked, and I get about three pop-ups from AntiVir about various possibly fraudulent components that are trying to run or something...

Anyone has a clue what's the deal there? I've last used my PayPal account a month ago, and I don't think anything there is out of date, so... yet the email does not look weird at all!

Update Your Information

It has came to our attention that your PayPal billing information are out of date. This require you to update your billing information as soon as possible.

This billing update is also a new PayPal security statement which goes according to the established norms on our terms of service (TOS) to reduce the instance of fraud on our website.

Please update your records . A failure to update your records may result on a suspension of your account.

To update your PayPal records click on the following link:

https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_login-run/

This new security statement will helps us continue to offer PayPal as a secure and cost-effective payment service. We appreciate your cooperation and assistance.

Sincerely,

The PayPal Team

[kinuta]

I got this mail and Opera and AntiVir are going berserk over it... not sure what's the deal, but Opera won't open the page linked, and I get about three pop-ups from AntiVir about various possibly fraudulent components that are trying to run or something...

Anyone has a clue what's the deal there? I've last used my PayPal account a month ago, and I don't think anything there is out of date, so... yet the email does not look weird at all!

Update Your Information

It has came to our attention that your PayPal billing information are out of date. This require you to update your billing information as soon as possible.

This billing update is also a new PayPal security statement which goes according to the established norms on our terms of service (TOS) to reduce the instance of fraud on our website.

Please update your records . A failure to update your records may result on a suspension of your account.

To update your PayPal records click on the following link:

https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_login-run/

This new security statement will helps us continue to offer PayPal as a secure and cost-effective payment service. We appreciate your cooperation and assistance.

Sincerely,

The PayPal Team

I've had the same thing several times. It's obviously a scam that should be immediately deleted. Personally I'm fed up with junk mail, every day I must delete about 20 spams for Viagra, increasing one's dick size, Russian girls dating and other rubbish.

[Claude]

ccount.

To update your PayPal records click on the following link:

https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_login-run/

Is that really the linked page underneath the visible link? Point your mouse to the link (without clicking on it) so that Opera displays the real link. Usually scams consist in sending the user to a fake Paypal login page, so that they can collect the login data.

I can't see how this could work as a scam, when the link sends you to the real Paypal site.

Maybe there are some active scripts in the HTML code of the mail which try to do something and trigger the Antivirus warning.

What you can do is forward the email to spoof@paypal.com , so that the Paypal support people inform you about the legitimace or not of the email.

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=xpt/Marketing/securitycenter/antiphishing/PPPhishingReport-outside

Edited December 29, 2009 by Claude

[king ubu]

Well, Opera wouldn't open that link here! It instead sent me to one of their red fraud-warning pages... when I click the link now, I get to the Paypal site but get a message that I'm trying to reach an outdated version of it.

Anyway, this is the first time I got anything fishy linked to Paypal...

[kinuta]

It's a scam ! Just look at the number of spelling and grammar mistakes. No self respecting on line company would ever send out such atrociously written crap.

[Claude]

I recently received a phishing email concerning Paypal, which was very well done, probably copied from a real Paypal email, including phishing warning

But the phishing intent was quite obvious to more knowledgable users, since below the Paypal link was a link to a free webspace site (no https). I went to that site, which looked exactly like the Paypal login page. I entered some bogus email and password and came to a page were I was asked to enter a lot of personal data, including my password for ATM machines

That's where the phishers screw up. They make websites which are good enough to fool people, but then raise suspicion by trying to get too much from the victim. Asking a credit card CVC code from users is pretty normal, but the ATM code? That's too stupid.

[king ubu]

Yeah, the mail I got had a side-bar and signature full of such warnings and stuff, too!

[J.A.W.]

I'm getting those e-mails all the time, they're phishing attempts. Never open the mails, just go to your PayPal account; if there's anything wrong with your account, you'll get a message there.

[Claude]

I think I received the same email as king ubu today. According to Avira virus scan, it contains HTML/Spoofing.Gen malware

http://www.avira.com/en/threats/section/fulldetails/id_vir/4139/html_spoofing.gen.html

Edited December 29, 2009 by Claude

[Jaffa]

Pure SPAM - I got exactly the same mail several times but have never opened an account or ever used Paypal !

[Son-of-a-Weizen]

I got this mail and Opera and AntiVir are going berserk over it... not sure what's the deal, but Opera won't open the page linked, and I get about three pop-ups from AntiVir about various possibly fraudulent components that are trying to run or something...

Anyone has a clue what's the deal there? I've last used my PayPal account a month ago, and I don't think anything there is out of date, so... yet the email does not look weird at all!

Update Your Information

It has came to our attention that your PayPal billing information are out of date. This require you to update your billing information as soon as possible.

This billing update is also a new PayPal security statement which goes according to the established norms on our terms of service (TOS) to reduce the instance of fraud on our website.

Please update your records . A failure to update your records may result on a suspension of your account.

To update your PayPal records click on the following link:

https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_login-run/

This new security statement will helps us continue to offer PayPal as a secure and cost-effective payment service. We appreciate your cooperation and assistance.

Sincerely,

The PayPal Team

got 3 of 'em today as well.

[Brad]

I think Hans' advice is the best one. That is what I do when I get a suspicious ebay email. By the way, the spammers seem to have gotten tired of the ebay scam and moved on (at least in my case).

Edited December 29, 2009 by Brad

[jlhoots]

Definitely a scam.

My only "complaint" is that I've forwarded 3 of these to Pay Pal, & they haven't replied.

I suppose they get hundreds of these a day.

[ejp626]

Facebook scams are popular too. I don't have Facebook or anything like that, so it is pretty obvious when I get an email saying there is something wrong with my Facebook account.

[king ubu]

Ok, thanks everybody - nothing much to worry then, just one more thing to delete that the spam filter doesn't (yet) pick out for me...

[Tim McG]

We got nailed five years ago by a similar PayPal scam. They had everything mirrored right down to the links on a legit PayPal site. The hacker tried to get almost $2000 bucks before I caught it. We got all our money back and if you alert your bank, they will go after the guy, too.

The thing to watch out for is how they address you. If the salutation is "PayPal Customer" ignore it; it is a fraud. PayPal will only address you by name. Secondly, read the web address and if it is anything other than PayPal.com, it is a fraud.

Edited December 29, 2009 by GoodSpeak