Hello Linda and Fellow Forumites, I thought I might offer this as a thread because I am getting SICK and TIRED of getting scammy, scummy bogus PayPal and eBay Emails from every Tom, Dick and Harry wanting me to reveal to them my identity and password. I figured that while this is NOT a profit subject it sure can affect your profit if you fall for the scam. Basically, some person sends out a bunch of emails targetting people who they either know or suspect of having a paypal or eBay account with subject lines announcing that there is a problem with their account. They do the same with bank accounts but because I am in Australia and we do not have certain banks over here I can see immediately that they are just trolling for suckers. However, if you have a website then it is almost a given that you have a PayPal account. I am particularly annoyed with this scam as the scammers themselves are very cunning with the way they clone the site and make it look virtually the same as Paypal. If you hover your cursor over the link that they want you to push you will see that the destination that they want you to reach - their BOGUS site - is not Paypal at all. It is a clone site that they have set up expressly to collect your information. They then have your identity and can log-on to the real Paypal site with your ID and password. I have been collecting these scams in a folder marked as such. In the last 81 days since 2 September 2005 I have collected 25 of these. Some of them are so cleverly disguised and they are getting better by the day. I thought I would throw this into the forum as it certainly has the ability to smash somebody's profit to pieces. Some unidentified person in China or Russia or Uzbekistan could steal your identity and your money. Linda will no doubt be able to expose much more of this threat. Do any others get inundated with these potentially disastrous emails? Gary Simpson

Most definitely Gary. I get a ton of them and you're right it is annoying. One of the first things I look for when I see these emails to know if it's legitimate or not is to find my username at the top of the email. PayPal "always" includes your username. If you don't see it, that's the first indication to me that it's a scam mail. Even when I do receive a legitimate email from PayPal, I "NEVER" click on any link in the email. I "ALWAYS" open a new browser and enter my PayPal account through the normal login process. If PayPal has information for you they will let you know inside your account. I don't know if ebay does the same with your username at the beginning of an email because I don't have an ebay account. Anyone???

Hi Winston, Yes e-bay includes your username right at the top of any communication and once you log in to your account there will also be the same message in your private mail folder.

Hi: I get a lot of those "phishing" emails, too. Winston hit the solution spot on (as usual) =========================================== Even when I do receive a legitimate email from PayPal, I "NEVER" click on any link in the email. I "ALWAYS" open a new browser and enter my PayPal account through the normal login process. =========================================== That's the solution. Some things, like spam, we - as users - have no control over. Phishing scams we have complete control over. The solution is simple. ALWAYS, ALWAYS open a new browser window to go to Paypal, ebay, your bank, or anywhere that you have a login. If everyone did that, phishing scams would die a fast death. : ) Linda

Ugh! I had yet another one of these rotten things waiting for me this morning. Winston, Peter and Linda have all added good advice and comments here. I thought I would paste some of the subject lines in these emails for others to see how this scam is perpetrated: 1 "New email address added to your PayPal account" Note:- the supposed email address added was - jhonnyk33@hotmail.com 2 "PayPal Notification ( Your account is limited )" Note:- this tries to legitimise the scam by mentioning PayPal Email ID PP562 3 "PayPal Update Alert #D3-3345124" Note:- abusively, when I hovered my cursor over the link on this one it said "lowfatbrains." 4 "Please Restore Your Account Acess" Note:- look at the way the scammer spells the word "Access" 5 "Unauthorized access to your PayPal account!!!" Note:- excessive use of !!! 6 "PayPal Security Measures" Note:- real http when the cursor is hovered over the link is "rooter.baxnet.dyndns.org" 7 "Security Measures - Are You Traveling?" Note:- the body of text states that the investigation team has noted access from various foreign countries - Germany and the UK 8 "PayPal Email ID PP321" Note:- another foreign address scam and when the cursor is hovered it reveals a "https://www" slight variation of the real Paypal address - just a MINOR difference which makes it particularly dangerous. These emails are fraudulent and dangerous if you click any link inside them. They take you straight to a FRAUD site set up specifically to RIP YOU OFF. As Linda and Winston both wisely state: DO NOT click to go to ANY address from ANY email supposedly from ANY bank, Paypal, eBay or anywhere else that seeks your ID or password for confirmation. These scammers are only trying to trick you. I post this information to help anybody who receives one or a dozen or more of these horrible emails. I now have yet another one. They just keep on coming... Gary Simpson