PAYPAL USERS BEWARE

[Jammer53]

I have just received what I believe to be a ficticious Paypal email, which states the following:


quote:
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Member Verification


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Your account has been flagged in our system to be investigated about an issue concerning Fraud. We require members flagged with Fraud to login below to verify their account. After you login, your account will be taken out of Fraud and you will be allowed to make transfers again



Click on this link to continue the verification http://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?Member-Verification


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PayPal Support Team





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Looks official/original enough, except for one small letter! All Paypal web addresses start with https, not http. Obviously, if you get one of these emails, DO NOT CLICK ON THE LINK!.

Oh yeah, just log in and we'll make the "FRAUD" just go away. End of inquiry. Yeah, ok. Right.

I have emailed Paypal and am awaiting their instructions

J53

 

[hollowman]

although that email does sound suspicious, i thought it doesn't matter https or http with that link? doesn't it automatically change https when you are actually about to login?

 

[TonyRic]

It doesn't matter. Same server, different web server port, that is all. I would not be surprised if it is a legitimate email.

 

[RDMustang1]

Yea, unless this person hacked the paypal website and put their own script up on paypal's servers then it's legit.

 

[jyates]

The wording of the email doesn't sound "paypal" to me.

 

[Jammer53]

It doesn't matter. Same server, different web server port, that is all. I would not be surprised if it is a legitimate email.

OK, I know you didn't intend that to be a slight, but I want to point something out here. I have never defrauded anyone in my life.
I am an honest and upright person. Anyone who has ever dealt with me will attest to that fact.

The premise of the email is bogus, period. Oh, just click on this link, and all the "fraud" issues will disappear, and you can continue trading? Please.

Must think I just fell off a turnip truck.

If it's not a password stealing scam, I'm a monkey's uncle.

J53

 

[nsafreak]

I do believe it is a legit e-mail, not the best worded one mind you but legit. I copied & pasted the link and it brought me to PayPal's website and the secure section of it where it was waiting for me to enter my password. Didn't have much to worry about in the first place since I never save the password, always type it in manually.

 

[hollowman]

Originally posted by: Jammer53

It doesn't matter. Same server, different web server port, that is all. I would not be surprised if it is a legitimate email.

OK, I know you didn't intend that to be a slight, but I want to point something out here. I have never defrauded anyone in my life.
I am an honest and upright person. Anyone who has ever dealt with me will attest to that fact.

The premise of the email is bogus, period. Oh, just click on this link, and all the "fraud" issues will disappear, and you can continue trading? Please.

Must think I just fell off a turnip truck.

If it's not a password stealing scam, I'm a monkey's uncle.

J53

 

[olds]

Looks like paypal to me.

 

[gentobu]

Did you check the 'real' link address? heres what I mean http://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?Member-Verification.

 

[dawks]

Yea looks like paypal is trying to verify your e-mail address..

OR, the example that gentobu provided is quite possible.

If the link is actually what you posted, then the person sending this message would have had to hack paypals servers..

As someone said, all https means is a different port.. 443 as opposed to 80... Its still the same server.

 

[bmacd]

looks legit to me. No real need for a sticky.

-=bmacd=-

 

[Burnt]

Well, Paypal warns everyone that if there isn't an "s" at the end of "http", that you're not on the secure paypal site, so you should make sure that any valid paypal address has "https"

Also, see where the link actually goes as an above poster said

and this is what is posted at the end of every paypal email:

"Note: When you log in to your PayPal account, be sure that the
website's URL always begins with "https://www.paypal.com/".
The "s" in "https" at the beginning of the URL means you are
logging into a secure page. If the URL does not begin with
https, you are not on a PayPal page. "

 

[bmacd]

goto paypal and take a look. All their pages are in the same format with the *webscr?" line in it, preceeded by "http://" not "https://".

It's as legit as can be.

-=bmacd=-

 

[Sundog]

If you follow that http:// link and click the on "log in", it takes you to the https:// page to log in, which just happens to be the same https:// address that you are taken to to log in if you just type in www.paypal.com.

Looks legit to me.

 

[Balthazar]

Ok, so whats the explanation for the easy removal from the fraud issues?

Unless maybe the fraud in question has to do with invalid email addresses or something along those lines....hard to say.

 

[Jynx980]

Papal is terrible! They have screwed a lot of people out of a lot of money. There are much safer ways of electronic transfer. CANCEL YOUR ACCOUNT NOW!

 

[Geekbabe]

Originally posted by: jyates
The wording of the email doesn't sound "paypal" to me.

I agree !!!



I solve this problem by NEVER clicking on any links sent to me in email concerning Paypal, I just open my browser and log in manually to see the status of my account. Paypal would ask you to contact them via phone or tell you that someone from account security would be in touch with you.. the wording of that thing smells like rotten egggs to me.

 

[max105]

I don't even bother reading most of those Paypal newsletters and such. After hearing about all those scams, I'm thinking about killing my Paypal account entirely.

 

[kt]

Like Jammer53 said, he would be a monkey's uncle to fall for that. First of all, for those people who claim that the email is legit. I don't think so. The link MAY be legit, but the fact that you're communicating thru port 80 instead of port 443 (SSL port), you're sending non-encrypted information over the Internet. Whoever sent out that email, doesn't really need to have access to PayPal's webserver to intercept the information which is being sent without any encryption. As some of you may know already, your packet travels thru numerous routers and gateways before reaching Paypal's webserver. Users beware.. and this post deserves to get sticky.

 

[Jammer53]

UPDATE

Just talked with "gwen" at paypal. She said this is definitely not from Paypal. I attached it to an email and forwarded it to her, to forward to Paypal's Mgmt/Security Team.

I told her (and put it in the email) that I trade on several BBS's and many folks are waiting to find out what the deal is here.

I will advise asap.

Thanks for all the help guys.

J53

 

[Jmmsbnd007]

Paypal Sucks
Paypal Sucks again

 

[rbhawcroft]

Originally posted by: Jammer53

It doesn't matter. Same server, different web server port, that is all. I would not be surprised if it is a legitimate email.

Must think I just fell off a turnip truck.

If it's not a password stealing scam, I'm a monkey's uncle.J53

in case you didnt know in some fonts l and i with i in capitals look exactly the same. and with the 'amazon' example a trick could be pulled.

 

[rbhawcroft]

you would have to be a total dirk diggler to follow a paypal email link.

 

[Jammer53]

PAYPAL RESPONDS:

Thank you for forwarding this information to me. To answer your questions: 1) The email is not from PayPal. Any email from PayPal will begin with https://www.paypal.com. Any email that claims to be from PayPal but does not begin with https://www.paypal.com is not from PayPal.

2) At this time I do not have information regarding any particular fraudulent activity, although because of the nature of the PayPal service, unscrupulous people may try to obtain account information from our users to gain access to their accounts. This is why we advise our users to never give out password information. Please feel free to pass along this information if you encounter users with questions. If they would like to discuss the matter with us please have them contact us by email or phone :
Thank you for bringing this possibly fraudulent website/email to our attention.



Rest assured, PayPal will take immediate and appropriate action on the matter. If you have surrendered financial information or password information to the website/email, report this to your financial institutions, and immediately change your passwords and secret answers. If you find any unauthorized changes on any account, report the occurrence immediately!

To file a claim of Unauthorized Use of Your PayPal Account, click here:

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_contact-submit&flow=sa_unauth&opt1=sa&opt2=unauth

If you can no longer access your PayPal Account, use the following instructions*. If you still cannot access your PayPal Account after following these instructions, click here:

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_contact-general-submit&flow=sa_unauth&opt1=sa&opt2=unauth

*We have developed a process by which you can regain access to your PayPal Account by confirming some of the information you gave when registering for your account. Please follow the instructions below, which will guide you through the rest of the process.


1. Visit https://www.paypal.com and click the "Forget Your Password?" link located under the box provided for you to enter your password (you may have to first click a "Log In" button if our system does not recognize the computer you are using).

2. On the page that appears, enter your email address in the box provided and click the "Submit" button. The email address entered must be an email address you have added to your PayPal Account.

3. An email containing a hypertext link along with additional instructions will be automatically sent to the email address you entered in Step 2.

You will be asked to answer the security questions you chose when signing up for your account, and if successful, you will be able to access your account immediately. If you cannot remember the answers to your security questions, click the "I forgot the answers to my security questions" link and follow the instructions.

**To change either your password or your security questions, please follow the instructions below.


1. Log into your account at https://www.paypal.com by entering your email address and password into the Member Login box. This will take you to the "My Account" page.

2. Click the "Profile" subtab.

3. Click the "Password" link in the "Account Information" column.

4. Select either "Password" or "Security Question" and click the "Edit" button.

5. Type your current password in the "Current Password" box, then either type your new password into the "New Password" and "Retype Password" boxes, or select your new security questions and enter the answers. Please note, passwords are case sensitive and must be at least 8 characters. Also, make sure that your CAPS LOCK is not on when you set your password.

6. Click on the "Save" button to complete the change.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

PayPal and its representatives will NEVER ask you to reveal your password. There are NO EXCEPTIONS to this policy. If anyone claiming to work for PayPal asks for your password under any circumstances, by email or by phone, please refuse and immediately contact us via webform at http://www.paypal.com/wf/f=sa_default.