Today, I recieved the email from Bob warning us about the PayPal scam. I wanted people to be aware that this is a real problem, not an urban legend.
There is a website that I visit to check on the status of urban legends, and my husband is a network engineer; he sometimes has to deal with these problems at work. We had seen that there was a virus out that puts up a fake paypal site to "confirm credit card information". I guess I hadn't given it any thought beyond "gee, that's slimy", but now that Bob's seen it, I want to be certain that the community here is aware that this is a very real problem.
For more information on this virus warning, you can visit http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/paypal.asp
I do want you to be reassured, however, that anti-virus software programmers are aware of the problem; from the snopes site above, you can follow a link that will take you to McAffee's patch for this problem. It also contains a link to an article in PCWorld about this PayPal ripoff.
I want to point out that this is NOT Paypal. They are not putting this out, they are not responsible for this scam operation, and work to protect your privacy.
Thanks all!
Heather
Bob's note: It is NOT PayPal that is Scamming
it is an imitator scamming
The scam Heather describes is also real but it is a different one from the email that I got.
If you did fall for this scam don't be embarassed; it is REAL slick. If you did enter information in the site linked to:
http://211.38.213.233:2347/index.htm (changed slightly so no one goes there)
BE CERTAIN to inform any institutions (banks, credit card co's , etc.) that might be affected. You will likely be safest by cancelling the card and getting a new one.
bob
11/28/03
Paypal answered my email and as you can see, they are quite concerned and will investigate. This is their email:
Dear bob,
Thank you for contacting PayPal.
Thank you for bringing this suspicious email to our attention. We can confirm that the email you received; was not sent to you by PayPal. The website linked to this email is not a registered URL authorized or used by PayPal. We are currently investigating this incident fully. Please do not enter any personal or financial information into this website.
If you have surrendered any personal or financial information to this fraudulent website, you should immediately log into your PayPal Account and change your password and secret question and answer information. Any compromised financial information should be reported to the appropriate parties.
If you notice any unauthorized activity associated with your PayPal transaction history, please immediately report this to PayPal by following the instructions below:
1. Go to https://www.paypal.com/
2. Click on the Security Center at the bottom of the page
3. Click on "Report a Problem"
4. Select the Topic: Report Fraud
5: Select the Subtopic: Unauthorized use of my PayPal Account, and click Continue.
6. Follow the instructions to access the appropriate form
If you have any further questions, please let us know.
Sincerely,
The PayPal Team
Welcome !
