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Is this a phishing scam?

by Greg guitar
18 replies
I've gotten several emails from "paypal" that look like a phishing scam, but I wanted to ask fellow warriors to confirm.

The insidious thing if my suspicion is correct, is that they are using a clever ploy-offering me a chance to upgrade my info, in order to avoid "suspending" my account, and obviously nobody wants to have her/his paypal account suspended. I doubt the real paypal would need me to update, as nothing is out of date, and I've even made a recent purchase.

Here is the latest email:

Subject:

Dear valued PayPal Customer

Body:

Dear valued PayPal Customer,

It has come to our attention that your PayPal account information needs to be updated as part of our continuing commitment to protect your account and to reduce the instance of fraud on our website.

If you could please take 5-10 minutes out of your online experience and update your personal records you will not run into any future problems with the online service.

However, failure to update your records will result in account suspension.

Once you have updated your account records, your PayPal session will not be interrupted and will continue as normal.


To update your PayPal records click on the following link:
http://www.paypal.com/update-your-account.com/


If the link doesn't work, copy and paste this entire URL into the address bar of your browser:
http://www.paypal.com/update-your-account.com/


PayPal Security Advisor.

Copyright 1999-2010 PayPal. All rights reserved. ‏

What do you think fellow warriors? Thanks in advance for anyone that chimes in.
#phishing #scam
  • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
    Banned
    If that is the real link that you got, it is the paypal domain. Don't know how it could be a phishing scam on that domain, but I never click on the paypal links in emails. If Paypal wants you to update your info, just log into Paypal and update it.
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    • Profile picture of the author Gary King
      Originally Posted by sbucciarel View Post

      If that is the real link that you got, it is the paypal domain. Don't know how it could be a phishing scam on that domain, but I never click on the paypal links in emails. If Paypal wants you to update your info, just log into Paypal and update it.
      Suzanne and all,

      This is actually NOT the real paypal domain...

      http://www.paypal.com/update-your-account.com

      It's the update-your-account.com domain with a computer name of www.paypal.com.

      FWIW, update-your-account.com is registered off-shore and a hotmail email address for contact info.

      Gary
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      • Profile picture of the author L41db4ck
        Originally Posted by Gary King View Post

        Suzanne and all,

        This is actually NOT the real paypal domain...

        http://www.paypal.com/update-your-account.com

        It's the update-your-account.com domain with a computer name of www.paypal.com.

        FWIW, update-your-account.com is registered off-shore and a hotmail email address for contact info.

        Gary
        I have to admit that I didn't see it at first...yes, the second .com bit gives it away
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        • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
          Originally Posted by cycler View Post

          forward it to spoof@paypal and they'll verify
          Already done it - and it is indeed phishy.

          If you ever have any doubts, hover your pointer over the link in the email and check the real destination in the status bar. If it doesn't match the link in the email, slap on the brakes and hit the delete key.
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  • Profile picture of the author KathyK
    I'd say it probably is a phishing scam - I suspect you cut/pasted the text from the email and got the 'good' links in here that were probably something else in the email.

    Log in directly to your paypal account and check all your info, as recommended above.

    Never click on bank/paypal or other login links (like godaddy, facebook, gmail, etc.) directly from emails.
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    Cheers,
    Kathy

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    • Profile picture of the author webpageguru
      Its definitely a scam. Just delete these waste of time emails.

      Paypal would address you by name.

      Good that you are being careful though.
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      • Profile picture of the author tpw
        Originally Posted by webpageguru View Post

        Its definitely a scam. Just delete these waste of time emails.

        Paypal would address you by name.

        Good that you are being careful though.
        They would address you by name for sure...

        Also, while the links look good, if you look at the link behind the URL they show you, most times it is something strange... The link and the URL will not look the same... That is a hint that it is definitely a scam...
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        • Profile picture of the author Janet Sawyer
          Dear valued PayPal Customer

          Please never ever log in from a link from an email.
          Even if this email looks legitimate like Dear Mr I used your real name, so I must be from PayPal.

          Always, read the email and then close the browser down. (Do not delete it "the email")

          Clear your cookies. (ccleaner)

          Once you have cleared cookies.

          Re-open a fresh browser window and log into your PayPal account.

          If you don't see any notifications from PayPal then the email is a phishing attempt.

          Log out of your PayPal account.
          Close your browser.
          Open up your email client.
          Send (forward with header info) the email to spoof@paypal.com

          They will acknolwedge that the email has reached them, they will then tell you not to click on any links contained within the original email, which hopefully you haven't done.

          That's it, you will never hear if it was a phishing attempt or not.
          PayPal doesn't give you any feedback.

          So, Never, Ever, click on a link to PayPal from an email - even if it looks like it's legit from PayPal themselves. Only log into your PayPal account from a clean and new browser window.
          Signature
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    • Profile picture of the author santosm
      Hey Greg,

      Yep defnitely a scam.

      Whenever you get an email asking you to click on a link asking you to upgrade, update, reset or the like, you should always open a new browser to get into your account.

      Here is a link to the paypal phishing challenge to help you spot the scams in future.

      https://www.paypal.com/au/cgi-bin/we...ishing-outside

      And that link I just gave you is not a scam!!

      Hope that helps.

      Cheers Marianne
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  • Profile picture of the author Andy Crofford
    As others have said, this definitely looks like a phishing scam. If PayPal needs you to update your info you should get a message to this extent when you login to your account.
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  • Profile picture of the author teleam
    I used to get these all the time. It definitely a Scam. Just log in your Paypal account to find out how to forward your email assuming you have it to PayPal. PayPal will then catch them.
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  • Profile picture of the author Greg guitar
    Thanks everyone-very helpful. I do believe it's a scam, but what threw me was the links-(yes Suzanne, I pasted the entire email in my OP-so those are the links I got) they look real to me, and I don't see how it would benefit a scam artist for me to go to the actual paypal site.

    To the others who chimed in: thanks so much for your thoughts, and I am aware of the wisdom of your advice-I never click links from someone I don't know!
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    • Profile picture of the author cycler
      forward it to spoof@paypal and they'll verify
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      • Profile picture of the author rosetrees
        Paypal never address you as "Dear valued PayPal Customer" - they always use your registered paypal name.
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  • Profile picture of the author dave147
    As soon as you see this:

    "Dear valued PayPal Customer"

    Delete it
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  • Profile picture of the author R Hagel
    Yep, what everyone else said... it's a scam.

    If an email is NOT addressed to you (as PP always uses your name), delete it right away. Don't even bother reading the rest.

    If the email DOES use your name, proceed with caution. Log into your account directly rather than clicking on any links in the email. That's because it's pretty easy for a scammer to get your name.

    If you clicked on a link (like you apparently have), virus check your computer immediately. Some of those sites try to plant something on your computer when you land on the page.

    Becky
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    • Profile picture of the author Greg guitar
      Originally Posted by R Hagel View Post

      Yep, what everyone else said... it's a scam.

      If an email is NOT addressed to you (as PP always uses your name), delete it right away. Don't even bother reading the rest.

      If the email DOES use your name, proceed with caution. Log into your account directly rather than clicking on any links in the email. That's because it's pretty easy for a scammer to get your name.

      If you clicked on a link (like you apparently have), virus check your computer immediately. Some of those sites try to plant something on your computer when you land on the page.

      Becky
      Actually, I not only avoid links in emails from unknown sources-I don't even hover the mouse over them, as I'm afraid my touchy mouse pad will click it accidentally. I don't know how the scammers got my email, but mining emails and names, as you pointed out, isn't hard to do.

      Thanks to all for your helpful thoughts on this; I thought I smelled rotten phish, but it's nice to have more astute, knowledgeable Warriors confirm and offer interesting details I hadn't thought of. Fellow Warriors, you rock!
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  • Profile picture of the author steve48135
    They could be using domain forwarding. Contact pay-pal directly and ask them.
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