Thursday, May 21, 2009

PayPal Fraud

Yesterday I recieved this email:
Dear Member,As part of our security measures, we regularly screen activity in the PayPal system. We recently contacted you after noticing an issue on your account. We requested information from you for the following reason:We have observed activity in this account that is unusual or potentially high risk.We appreciate your understanding as we work to ensure account safety. Click here to resolve the problem.In accordance with PayPal's User Agreement, your account access will remain limited until the issue has been resolved. Unfortunately, if access to your account remains limited for an extended period of time, it may result in further limitations or eventual account closure. We thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. We apologize for any inconvenience.Email ID PP629 YNJDIGOYIRVUUXGVPTPOZVCRFVMLMYGCVPIRFZ

I did clicked the link, but the site was suspicious, as nohing else I should be able to clicked worked except the window to put my password in... Working in a customer center I've seen a couple of fraud cases, so I contacted paypal.
Their answer came fast:
Thank you for contacting PayPal.Mrs. Vég, upon reading your email I can confirm you that the email was not from us as your PayPal account is in good standing and we did not place anylimitations on it. Please forward it to spoof@paypal.com and then delete the email from your mailbox. Never click any links or attachments in a suspicious email. If you've entered any of your details or replied to the email with personalor financial details, please log in to your PayPal account and change your password and security questions as soon as you can. You may also wish to contact your bank or credit card issuer to report the information as stolen. I'd also suggest that you take a look at the latest transactions inyour PayPal account. Here's what you need to do to see your transactions:1. Log into your PayPal account at https://www.paypal.com/. 2. Click on 'All activity' in the Overview page. 3. Select the dates and click 'Search' to view. 4. Click 'Details' to view specific information concerning this transaction. If there's a transaction which seems to be wrong (for example if there is one that you do not recognise) or you cannot log in to your PayPal account,you should tell us as soon as possible. You can click the 'Security Centre'link at the bottom of any PayPal webpage and select Select an unauthorised transaction claim' in the 'Report a Problem' column. Please fill in the form to file a claim for unauthorised use of a PayPal account.Please let me know if you need further assistance.Sincerely,

Whew. It seems I am not a suspicious idiot after all. Nor am I a fool (as P likes to think).
I guess I did saved myself some trouble.

5 comments:

CriticalStatus said...

there's a lot of that going around. never click anything on those emails. do what you did and call directly or going directly to the paypal site. i see those and just delete them.

herr_dr_nuss said...

hey sweetie

that previous comment is from me. :-) haev a great weekend!!!

KnittyKitty said...

Actually, if you hover your mouse over the link (you don't even have to actually click on the link), you can see at the bottom left of your browser that the link will take you to some weird website, nothing to do with paypal. Right away this is a sure way to know that the email is a spam/fraud. Another give away is all the weird letters and such on the bottom of the email, as well as that they called you "member" instead of your official name.
One mayor way to not fall into a trap like this is to type in the site directly into your browser instead of clicking the link in the email, as CriticalStatus(herr_dr_nuss?) wrote.
It was a cool thing you let PayPal know about this! Most people just delete these (if they realize what's going on that is), and that doesn't help PayPal much in fighting all this fraud.

herr_dr_nuss said...

yes KnittyKnitty, CriticalStatus are Herr Dr. are the same. CriticalStatus is for my blog for my profession. Herr Dr. is a private blog for prose.

peony said...

Yes, I know...I do work in a bank, and I had to handle some fraud cases so, inmediatly it was suspicios, even when I saw the sender. I also know from my bank experience that it is always good to let the original site know what is going on.