So, what would say about that?
Recently I received an email from PayPal stating that a suspicious withdrawal of $149 has been made through my account to an Albanian Bank.
_ _
Right! And I’m Napoleon.
To be honest, this email sound very professional and PayPal-ish.
BUT, there’s some things I ALWAYS CHECK before making any moves. Of course this applies to those who own a PayPal account.
- 1. Check the bloody link to where the sender sends you. In this case was: http://correo.humtec.edu.pe/PhpMyAdmin/paypal/accounts/webscr/cmd=_login-submit/index.html
Do not go there! I warned you!
- 2. Think very carefully at what you did with your PayPal account. In my case PayPal account is used strictly per ONE transaction ONLY! Meaning that I fund my linked card for ONE specific transaction at the time.
- 3. A bank, online payment processor and other money related offline and online account will NEVER ask for your personal data through a bloody email, phone, mail etc…
- 4. Have you noticed the link of your PayPal account when you login or the link of the main page? It always begins with https:// ALWAYS!
Rule number one: NEVER follow web links from spam emails or from emails that you don’t know.
Reason: In that way you confirm your email address => to be spamed like crazy in the future. This method of advertising is old just like prostitution and it’s also dangerous because you never know with what do you have to deal in the future…
Take a look at the original SPAM email received from the so-called PayPal.
Dear PayPal Customer,
We have recently noticed more login attempts to your PayPal account from a foreign IP address and we have reasons to believe that you have been the victim of an identity theft. If you have recently accessed your account while traveling, the unusual login attempts may have been initiated by you.
However, on 09.01.2008, 01:29PM, a suspicious $149.98 withdrawal has been made from your account to an Albanian bank account.
Access to your PayPal account and funds has been temporary suspended until we can verify the account ownership. Please click here [edit: link REMOVED for your protection] to access the PayPal website and follow the steps to reactivate your account and confirm or cancel the withdrawal. To protect our customer accounts and to prevent future account hijacking or identity theft, one of our team merbers will manually verify the information you provide. After submitting the form, please send a fax to (1)484-993-0195 (Paypal Security Department) with a copy of your ID or driving license and a copy (front and back) of a credit/debit card associated with this account. Failing to do so whithin 24 hours will result in account termination and severe legal actions.
Please click here to confirm account ownership. [edit: link REMOVED for your protection]
We apologize for any inconvenience that we’ve may caused you and stay assured that your online security is our first priority.The PayPal Security Department
(1)484-993-0195
Email ID: 2988
Albanian bank?!
This guy must be extremely stressed with spam emails from Albanian and Nigerian people requesting his personal info to perform a bank transaction of a fabulous sum of money. Or maybe it’s a trend nowadays.
I end this post with a clarification, just to be sure that you got it right. This post talks about a phishing method which uses PayPal as bait (to gain credibility).
The email quoted above IT IS NOT FROM PayPal!
The web address (the one that I warned you not to follow) does not have any relation with the original PayPal website.
This is the original PayPal website.
Remember! PayPal will NEVER ask for your personal data through an email or by phone or any other method. PERIOD
Stay safe,
CJ
