Pay Pal Caution

[Carolina Coyote]

Recently on my local news they were warning that that some foreign people had gained access to some of the info on Pay Pal  and were sending out email to account holders requesting additional information to confirm your account. Today I received a Email that looked like it was from Pay Pal saying my account was going to be canceled and I needed to go in and confirm my account. I suspected something  was wrong and sure enough went I clicked on the address my browser warned me that this Email was from a Foreign Address and could be fraudulent, that some one recently had tried to access my account from a foreign Country and to use caution about supplying any additional information. I had used Pay Pal a couple of times in the last few months but not from a Foreign Country. I know that some of  the Call Makers  use Pay Pal and I'm not saying don't use it but be aware that is something going on out there. I not a Computer expert but hopefully wise enough to avoid getting ripped off by some jerk in Nigeria. Maybe Jimbo can tell us how to protect our personal information on things like using our Credit Card and Pay Pal.  Carolina Coyote

[Hawks Feather]

It is a good warning for everyone.  If you get a (fake) warning like that, just go to paypal (not via the email link) and log in.  They have a section to report emails like this.  I usually get a warning like this about once every two weeks and sometimes once a week.  If you report it to PayPal, they will send you an email telling you not to respond to any emails like this and then reply that it is a fake and that they are taking action against that internet address. 

I also get quite a few from banks telling me that someone has accessed my account and I need to log in VIA THEIR EMAIL to get it resolved.  Now if I only had money in all those banks I would be a rich man.  I guess they figure that if anyone replies they will be ahead - just won't be me doing the reply.

Jerry

[awh]

Same here. Since I reported the last one a few months ago I haven't received anymore fake ones.

[KySongDog]

The fake emails are called "phishing" (fishing).  The bad guys send them to every email address they find hoping someone will bite and send back their confidential data.   

Never respond to any link in an email.  Your money will go bye-bye.

Semp

[FinsnFur]

Yep, they been doing that for a while now. Pretending to be PayPal or Ebay.

Best thing to do is DO NOT click any link inside those e-mails. You can get a glimps of where that link is going to take you by simply hovering your cursor over the link itself and then look down at your status bar. It'll show the address of where you'll go when you click that link. 9 times out of ten it isnt the real paypal site.

If you get an e-mail that you think might be fake forward it to spoof@paypal.com they will respond and they would rather you were safe then sorry.

Paypal is a very safe way to transfer funds. As long as your really on PayPal's site when you do it.
Another thing to look for is the "s" in  "https" up in your address bar once your logged in to paypal. No "s" on the end means your in trouble.
The "s" means your on a secured server, which if your are logged into PayPal..you will always be.

[blacky]

I get those on a regular basis and always delete them then go to PayPal and check my messages. If that same message is in there it is legitimate. I always forward that message to PayPal before deleting it also. Never answer a message from Paypal or Ebay unless it comes directley from their website and you can see it there.

I have never, and I mean never, had a problem with either PayPal or Ebay which are one and the same.

[Carolina Coyote]

Glad to see all the good advise on how to respond to these type emails. This was my first one of this kind and was unsure of what I needed to do. Thanks for helping me out.cc

[Hawks Feather]

Carolina,

They get your address from all sorts of places, even forwarded emails where the sender doesn't delete the people that it has been sent to previously.  Just keep deleting them, but expect more now that your email address is "out there" somewhere. It doesn't even affect me anymore when one arrives.

Jerry

[Nelson]

To Everybody,

Thank you very much for the information.  I just signed up with PayPal 2 days ago.

Nelson

[ohiobob]

I have never, and I mean never, had a problem with either PayPal or Ebay which are one and the same.

The ONLY PROBLEM i have ever had with paypal or e-bay is they are anti - gun ,,i have told my wife they are anti - gun and not to use them,,well she just says,,uh huh,,ok hon, anti - gun that isnt good is it? and she says all of this while she is actually bidding on E-bay or using pay pal to PAY for the stuff she has bought off of E-bay,,sheesh and shes a Blonde to boot 

Bob

[rwehuntn]

Thanks for alll the good information guys. I'll be sure to watch out and let my wife know.