I smell a rat. Again

[Morgbug]

Got an email today, looks officious enough:

E-Mail ID #3821 Notification of Limited Account Access
From service @paypal.com

Dear PayPal valued member,

PayPal is committed to maintaining a safe environment for
its community of buyers and sellers.

To protect the security of your account, PayPal employs
some of the most advanced security systems in the world
and our anti-fraud teams regularly screen the PayPal
system for unusual activity.


Recently, our Account Review Team identified some unusual
activity in your account.

In accordance with PayPal's User Agreement and to ensure
that your account has not been compromised, access to
your account was limited.

To restore your account please click on the link bellow:

http: //www. >:(paypal.com/cgi-bin/     >:(webscr?cmd=_login-run

If you fail to restore your account access by the date
shown below, your account will be closed.


This notification expires on the 23th of January, 2005.


Do not click on that link - links modified to non clickable

Rather than checking that link, I went to a couple of other sites, then into my paypal account.  Nothing amiss and no similar notice at all.      I suppose it could be real, but I seriously doubt it.

[Rob]

a)  Call or email Paypal directly and show them the email so they can verify that it's fake and take whatever appropriate action they can.

b)  Get that link out of the post if you don't want people clicking it - I almost did.

[DSJ™]

Yep, Do Not clink on any links in the email.

Forward the email to spoof@paypal.com Brent.

Found this on the eBay Paypal forum from the staff.

Many users in the forums post questions on a regular basis about the legitimacy of emails that appear to come from PayPal, eBay, or other sites. I think the information in this post will give users the ability to spot fake emails quickly, while also giving users a way to report the email(s) to our fraud team.

1. Emails that come from PayPal will reflect the name on your PayPal account (First and Last Name; Business Account name). Emails will not read with the following introductions:

"Dear PayPal User"
"Dear PayPal Member"

(It is also important to note that we will not ask you to give us your name because we already have that information on file.)

2. PayPal will not ask for your password and email combination in an email.

3. PayPal will not ask for the following information in an email:

credit card numbers
banking account numbers
social security numbers
driver's license numbers
for the user to download something to *fix* their account
for the user to download something to have access to new features

As a reminder, a user can always check the status of their PayPal account by simply logging in at www.paypal.com ONLY.

[DSJ™]

I removed that link Brent. Better safe than sorry. 

[Morgbug]

No worries, whichever version ends up there as I was modifying while you were. 

When I go to forward it all the text disappears.  Have to do a C&P.

And done, message passed on.

[DSJ™]

That strange that the text disappears.

[Morgbug]

Meh, probably a hotmail defect   Or my defect in the settings   Either way, paypal is aware of it now. 

[JesseVader08]

I don't think it's a hotmail defect.  I got a similar style e-mail supposedly from ebay last year, and the exact same problem would happen when I tried to forward it to their "spoof" department.  I think the sender (an ID scavenger) must somehow have something built-in to the e-mail to prevent it from being forwarded.

Another trick to determine if the e-mail is fake is to place your mouse arrow over that link (without clicking it).  Look down at your status bar, usually the fake will be busted by the fact that a different url appears than the one that appears in the e-mail.

[Morgbug]

Quick like bunny:

Thank you for contacting PayPal.

Thank you for bringing this suspicious email to our attention. We can confirm that the email you received was not sent to you by PayPal. The website linked to this email is not a registered URL authorized or used by PayPal. We are currently investigating this incident fully. Please do not enter any personal or financial information into this website.

If you have surrendered any personal or financial information to this
fraudulent website, you should immediately log into your PayPal Account and change your password and secret question and answer information. Any compromised financial information should be reported to the appropriate parties.

If you notice any unauthorized activity associated with your PayPal
transaction history, please immediately report this to PayPal by
following the instructions below:

   1.  Log in to your account at https://www.paypal.com/ by entering
your email address and password into the Member Log In box

   2.  Click on the Security Center at the bottom of the page

   3.  Click on 'Report a Problem'

   4.  Select the Topic: Report Fraud

   5.  Select the Subtopic: Unauthorized use of my PayPal Account

   6.  Enter your question in the 'Summarize your question in one
sentence' box

   7.  Click Continue

   8.  Follow the instructions to access the appropriate form

If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us again.

Sincerely,
PayPal Account Review Department

[DSJ™]

Boy that was really fast. 

[Scott]

Some people should get real jobs instead of trying to steal money through the internet