Scam Emails....Ebay, PayPal

[Cinders]

Here's a news article on the fake emails we've been receiving

CNN

 

[GAIL HAYDEN]

It amazes me how many people fall for this. If they ask anything personal, ie: ss numbers or credit card numbers, etc. Don't give it out. A reputable company will not do this unless you are making the contact.

 

[4greatboys]

Dear PayPal Customer

This e-mail is the notification of recent innovations taken by PayPal to detect inactive customers and non-functioning mailboxes.

The inactive customers are subject to restriction and removal in the next 3 months.

Please confirm your email address and account information by logging in to your PayPal account using the form below:


Email Address:
Password:
Full Name:




This notification expires September 3, 2003


Thanks for using PayPal!





This PayPal notification was sent to your mailbox. Your PayPal account is set up to receive the PayPal Periodical newsletter and product updates when you create your account. To modify your notification preferences and unsubscribe, go to https://www.paypal.com/PREFS-NOTI and log in to your account. Changes to your preferences may take several days to be reflected in our mailings. Replies to this email will not be processed.

Copyright© 2002 PayPal Inc. All rights reserved. Designated trademarks and brands are the property of their respective owners.

X-AOL-IP: 208.56.166.154






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This is a copy of an e-mail I recd from "Paypal" looks pretty real but its not. I dont give any info on e-mail I rec. Its best to go to the site--Paypal or whatever, log in and if they need info you will be asked then. You cna forward any suspicous paypal e-mails to: spoof @ paypal.com

 

[lalapodip]

Thanks for the CNN link, Cinders. It is amazing what lengths these people will go to. I received two emails from "eBay" and forwarded them on to spoof@ebay.com.

 

[DisneyFan09]

I'm one of the dummies that fell for one of those scams. The email appeared to come from Ebay (even had logos and everything) stating that an unauthorized user was trying to access my account and I needed to verify my identity by entering my paypal user name and password. Guess what? I did it! I felt uneasy about it for days and then contacted ebay and sent them a copy of the email and they said they did not send it and would investigate. I've checked my paypal account and changed my password but I don't know if it's too late. What if someone has my checking account number and is just waiting for my guard to be down to take what little money I have out of it? One thing that makes me think that I'm okay is that when I entered my password, only ***** showed up on the screen. I'm hoping that this means that they did not actually get my password. Any suggestions on how I should proceed with this?

 

[4greatboys]

Maybe you should contact your bank and change you acct. Close your current one and reopen another. That might give you a little peice of mind.
As for the password, I hate to to be pessimistic but I think they can tell what your password is--even though we only see stars. Otherwise there would be no way to access your account. Sorry.

No every e-mail I get from Paypal and/or e-bay I forward to them. Hope they get the creeps.

 

[Sammy]

I actually received the Paypal email, but luckily because I use my account frequently, I didn't fall for the "inactive account" ruse. However, I didn't realize it was a scam until I saw it here. Thank goodness I didn't click through the link provided in the email. Gawd! You can't trust anything anymore!!!

 

[adamak]

I received both PayPal and EBay. I pretty much suspect immediately that it's a scam. E.g. the sender's email is some generic name with AOL and HOTMAIL extension. Big companies never do that. They always have their own email host name. And companies will NEVER ask you for personal information the way it asks. Ligitimate email will say click here to the site, then login from the site. Never from within the email. Also, the recipient list is not hidden, and you can see it's an alphabetical list. Big companies will never do that.

But I must say, the email is quite sophiscated. It has PayPal and Ebay buttons / banners on top and bottom. And if you click on them, it send you to the real sites. One of email content says reply and type in user name and password to "verify".

I really hope we all know by now to pick out the scam. I hope the police are on it. Maybe too late, but make sure you don't fall for them again. And let your friends know too.

For those who has fallen for the scam.... you should freeze your paypal account, or remove bank info from them, and get a credit report immediately.

 

[peachgirl]

I got an email supposedly from Ebay saying that when they tried to bill my credit card it showed up as invalid.

It gave me what was supposed to be a link to Ebay to update my CC information and I'm just assuming this was a scam for a couple of reasons...

1) I had no charges on Ebay for the month and 2) My current card on file isn't invalid.


Btw, anyone who is still using their email address as a screename for Ebay should change it. It makes it way to easy for scammers to get to you.

 

[SueM in MN]

I wanted to add, if you get one of these emails, don't just delete it, report it.
I got one of the ebay emails many months ago. They didn't have an easy way to report them then and I had to sort of search for how to contact someone. But, once I found someone to listen, they got the website that the person was using to gather information closed it down that same day. So, if anyone else clicked on the link, it went nowhere.
It did look pretty realistic, but the big tip off for me was that it asked for verification of information that I had never given ebay in the first place.

One thing that makes me think that I'm okay is that when I entered my password, only ***** showed up on the screen. I'm hoping that this means that they did not actually get my password.

Whenever you enter a password or account number, all you see is a series of **** or dots. That's just so no one can look over your shoulder and see the actual password. The password is there, but it's just hidden from view.