Online Scams, User Beware Below is an example of a scam in my e-mail. I sent an e-mail asking why they were attempting to gain my user name and password for my PayPal account. Their response is at the bottom of this message.
======================SCAM E-MAIL===========





Dear PayPal Member,

PayPal is committed to maintaining a safe environment for its community of buyers and sellers. To protect the security of your account, we employ the most advanced security systems in the world and regularly screen our system for unusual activity.

Recently, our Account Review Team identified some unusual activity in your account. Per PayPal's user agreement, we have limited access to your account until this issue has been resolved. This is a fraud prevention measure meant to ensure that your account is not compromised.In order to secure your account and quickly restore full access, we require some specific information from you.Login follow our secure site and update all necessary informations to your account.

Click here to restore your account access

Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. Please understand that this is a security measure meant to help protect you and your account. We apologize for any inconvenience. Sincerely, PayPal Account Review Department.

Please do not reply to this e-mail. Mail sent to this address cannot be answered. For assistance, log in to your PayPal account and choose the "Help" link in the footer of any page.

PayPal Email ID PP2359
Copyright© 2006, PayPal Inc., All rights reserved.
Designated trademarks and brands are the property of their respective owners.

Protect Your Account Info
Make sure you never provide your password to fraudulent websites.To safely and securely access the PayPal website or your account, open a new web browser (e.g. Internet Explorer or Netscape) and type in the PayPal login page (http://paypal.com/) to be sure you are on the real PayPal site.

PayPal will never ask you to enter your password in an email.For more information on protecting yourself from fraud, please review our Security Tips at https://www.paypal.com/us/securitytips
Protect Your Password
You should never give your PayPal password to anyone.

==============SCAM E-MAIL==============

Here's the reply I found in my mailbox this morning.

Sir,

We are doing nothing of the like. Please do not jump to conclusions before you accuse us of anything because we are not crooks. Someone hacked into our website and we are taking care of it right now.

Good day. Regards, Zane

End of Message.

What tipped me off that this was nothing more than a scam? The TO: field was blank, and when I moved my cursor over the sign-in area of the message it was not PayPal but a site address of ADDRESS. <--Click on address and tell me if this is really Paypal? And just for fun, enter a fake username and fake password, and see where you are taken next. Maybe their server was hacked, and maybe it wasn't?

After completing this post I will give the site address and a copy of the email to PayPal and Earthlink just to be on the safe side.

Be very careful folks,

Eddie

UPDATE: 9:21am PST I have forwarded the phoney Paypal message to Paypal and Earthlink's fraud department. Check out Arin Whois and you will see where this message originated, by searching for 64.71.147.2

 

posted by Ed Padgett | ¶ 8:05 AM