Paypal Scam?

senordingdong

The other day I got a phone call from an American woman claiming to be working for Paypal. (it was bizzare the phone displayed no number or anything)

She wanted to 'report' some suspicious activity on my account and asked if I had authorized a transaction of €150 to Joe Bloggs the previous day.
I told her I did not and the conversation ended abrubtly.

I mentioned this to somebody I know and he suggested reporting it to get clarification from Paypal as to whether it was them or not. When I checked my email I had an email from them saying that my account was on restricted access because of suspicious activity.
Furthermore, this email had all the trademarks of an official email, even the correct address of service.intl@paypal.com. There was however, a mistake in the email as one of the paragraphs was repeated further down the message.

I sent it to paypal to get clarification and they said it was a fake and that the scam was trying to get my to open my account as the scammers were monitoring it.
Now it's been a few days and I can't get a reply from paypal to see if it's safe to open my account again.

Has anybody recieved one of these lately?

the groutch

"they" are at it all the time, I've had the same from people posing as ebay as well

just sign in to your ebay/paypal account and if it's not there it's fake

the main thing is to NEVER click on any links on an email

Vikings

Log into your PayPal account - if there are any warnings or notifications when you log in then it is real, if not then it is fake.

If your account is really restricted for whatever reason it will tell you when you log in and it will tell you how to resolve it.

If none of this information is on your PayPal account then just delete the emails - the only thing that might make it real is that they had your phone number, check your PayPal account and you will find out right away though.

rubadub

As the 2 guys say, just log in. I ignore all emails, paypal & banks know most stuff ends up in junk so would rarely bother trying to contact you that way. Why are you so sure service.intl@paypal.com is "correct"? even if you think it is legit, they can slip in extra dots or spaces, I have seen it before, so watch out.

senordingdong

I think that address is legit because I've recieved legit emails from them, at that address.
Anyway, thanks for the input folks.

hobochris

senordingdong wrote: »

I think that address is legit because I've recieved legit emails from them, at that address.
Anyway, thanks for the input folks.

The email address is very easy to fake, anybody who is the even the slightest bit It savvy can do it.

If I wanted I could send an email "from paypal" using the official email address. to assume that because its the official email address doesn't mean the email is from them. This assumption would be very naive...

LolaDub

The email address i receive paypal notifications from is service@intl.paypal.com and not service.intl@paypal.com

senordingdong

hobochris wrote: »

The email address is very easy to fake, anybody who is the even the slightest bit It savvy can do it.

If I wanted I could send an email "from paypal" using the official email address. to assume that because its the official email address doesn't mean the email is from them. This assumption would be very naive...

Well obviously we're not all up to speed on things like that but anyway, thanks for the info.

Oryx

Vikings wrote: »

Log into your PayPal account - if there are any warnings or notifications when you log in then it is real, if not then it is fake.

I realise Im stating the obvious, but just in case.... Never log into your account for paypal or anywhere else using a link in an email, no matter whether you trust it or not.

The quickest way of spotting a fake is when they don't use your name.

Every time i get an email from Paypal its:

Dear Shane Maguire


And every time i get an email from the fake "paypal" its:

Dear Paypal customer

IsThatSo?

How did the scammers get your phone number

This is the bit that would concern me.

dudara

I think if you ever receive an email from paypal, do not click on any of the links, but instead open a browser window, type in paypal directly and log into your account yourself to verify the communication.

Anyway, this is being moved on Online Buying & Auctions.