Beware with the new Paypal Phising Scam
An acquaintance received the following e-mail on Monday:
Notification of Limited Account Access
Dear FirstName LastName*,
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 recently received a report of unauthorized credit card use associated with this account. As a precaution, we have limited access to your PayPal account in order to protect against future unauthorized transactions.
Case ID Number: PP-816-13-169
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 encourage you to follow our verification procedure as soon as possible to help avoid this.
Once you log in, you will be provided with steps to restore your account access. We appreciate your understanding as we work to ensure account safety.
This is a final reminder to log in to PayPal as soon as possible.
We thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. Please understand that this is a security measure intended to help protect you and your account. We apologize for any inconvenience.
Sincerely,
PayPal Account Review Department
PayPal Email ID PP638
Please do not reply to this e-mail. Mail sent to this address cannot be answered. For assistance, to your PayPal account and choose the “Help” link in the footer of any page.
PayPal Email ID PP638
*Name was correct on the e-mail, but it’s been removed for privacy purposes, as have the links which also contained the correct e-mail address.
This e-mail looks very official and very convincing, even to having the first and last name of the recipient. It’s been reported to spoof@paypal.com, and they have confirmed that the e-mail did not originate with them.
As phishing scammers get more sophisticated, it gets harder to know which e-mails are legitimate and which aren’t. The best way to protect yourself from being phished is to:
- Never click on a link provided to you in an e-mail.
- Keep your virus and firewall protection up to date.
- When in doubt, contact the company directly to determine if the e-mail is genuine or a clever phishing attempt.
Source : About.com