The easiest was to confirm that the e-mail is a spoof with bogus links is to look at the raw e-mail. With Outlook, you simply right click your mouse in the text of the e-mail and select "View Source". Then you will see the HTML code that makes up the e-mail.
Search though the e-mail until you see were the hyperlinks are. You should see the text of the e-mail with all of the HTML formatting included. A hyperlink looks like <a href="http://www.domainname.com/index.html">Text You See</a>. Often, the author of the spam will put www.paypal.com as the text you see, but the link really sends you to some other web page, http://www.domainname.com/ that looks like a legitimate web page and has you enter private financial information.
99.999% of the time, these types of e-mails are bogus. Everybody just use common sense out there and you should be okay.
I am a webmaster at school, and I get those messages all of the time.
I report them to eBay (if I get a eBay spoof e-mail) or PayPal whenever I get a chance.
One time it said that I needed to pay 450,000 for Brett Farve's corvette that I won off eBay (!?) Who knows!
Phil
As a general rule, don't take any actions from a link on an email, whether it be Ebay, PayPal, the credit card company, the bank, your rich uncle Fontleroy from Nigeria or anybody else. If the email appears to be from someone you deal with and it is not an obvious scam, manually enter in the URL that you normally use (not one listed in the email) and check it out.
All this is bad enough that I have gone to a "white list" to filter my email.
I got one yesterday in the "Suspect" email "from ebay" claiming to be a seller who was ready to ship my purchase as soon as I paid. I actually won an auction the day before but that transaction was already complete and this was not from that seller. The seller name was legit, although they had not bought or sold anything in 9 months and had nothing pending. Examining the "Pay Now" link revealed it went to a third-party web site. The body of the email called the alleged seller a "buyer." I do have some stuff I wouldn't mind getting rid of that I might have to pay a buyer to take, but I haven't done anything to sell any of it. I sent a report to ebay for whatever good that will do.
I pretty much assume anything I get unexpectedly is a scam until I prove otherwise. Luckily, the first clue is that the email does not make it through the white list and I have to examine the suspect emails to find them.
- Mark
I had one show up the other day that almost got me...
<> It was a note thanking me for my order of a new laptop, paid for of course by credit card (it didn't say which one). There was no link on the page, but there was what looked like an attached pdf file describing the transaction. now, if you follow the Windows default of hiding the extensions of known filetypes, the .exe on the file would have been hidden.
it was nothign more than a virus. Hoping that i'd open the file to find out who bought the computer. Luckily, i didn't fall for it. it was convincing because it didn't want me to 'click through' to their website.
just another warning to never open a file without scanning it with an antivirus.
Dean
This is not a "new" problem as it has been going on for years. Maybe the variation is new to you, but the intention is the same old thing...trying to get your account and pasword information from you. A recent study has shown that most "ID theft" happened because the victim willingly gave up his/her information to the con artists. If you get one of these, and you will, don't open them. If you do have an account there such as Paypal, go to the site and open your account (don't click links in the emails) and check for messages there. all of these accounts have message areas to comunicate problems to you.
Just this morning I was doing my weekly Spam filter cleanout.
citybank -10, your account is suspended warnings. I don't have an account with them
Firstfifth bank - 6 account problem. No account with them
Paypal - 15 acount suspension/problem/payment complete/new account added.
Ebay - 23 account problem/I saw your item, want to buy/send me my item/etc, etc, etc
I could go on and on here with others.
Oh and the total $ figure for overseas money needing to be moved from a foriegn country into my account for this week was $375,000 000.00 This comes in fourth place in my weekly total records.
Although my e-mail provider has a Spam button under Incoming Mail, and places suspicious e-mails into my Bulk folder, that same Bulk folder for some reason lacks a Spam button for suspicious & pre-screened e-mail.
So, I have created a mail folder called -- Spam -- where the "--" places it first in my created e-mail folder storage list. All phishing expeditions (2-4 dozen/week) are then moved into the -- Spam -- folder where there is a Spam button.
Every Monday morning I hit the Spam button inside the -- Spam -- folder and it is reported to my e-mail provider to help them be more effective at pre-screening.
Also, don't forget to empty your Trash folder because these e-mails are initially treated as a deleted e-mails which requires that second Trash finishing touch.
Conemaugh Road & Traction circa 1956
I get these all the time at my employment e-mail address. Since I use G-mail for my E-Bay and Paypal accounts its a dead ringer right away.
BTW, you are WASTING YOUR TIME to "report" these scams to E-Bay and Paypal. THese companies have their place, but in many ways are totally worthless organizations.
Thanks guys, I did forward the e-mail to spoof@paypal.com
Like you all have mentioned, I've also received numerous scam deals....items I've won when I hadn't been bidding, questions about items I'm selling when I don't sell on the internet, e-mails from banks that I don't do business with, e-mails from "PayPai" etc....
But one like this I'd not received before, seemed to have elevated the scamming a level or two.
PayPal did verify it as a scam. Went to my PayPal account and no record of a large transaction was there.
Like a lot of you I buy a little of this and a little of that on the 'net, but I'm getting a little fed up with the constant stream of scamail.
And I didn't yet mention all the "Urgent" "Your Attention Now" and "Lottery Winner" email I get from foreign countries.
Anyway, thanks for the advice. Most of these don't even attract my attention anymore, but this one did. It wasn't so much that I supposedly paid 455 bucks for a cell phone...it was the 20.00 shipping!!! What a ripoff!
Simple rule of thumb: any LEGITIMATE PayPal message will have your PayPal user ID in the greeting (not "Dear PayPal User:"). If it does NOT mention your user ID, it is ALWAYS a fake. Ebay messages are the same way. If not addressed to your eBay user ID, they are bogus and should be deleted.
---Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Pathfinder wrote:As noted, whatever you do, do not click, reply or forward these. At best (for you) you will be confirming that your e-mail is valid and it then will be re-sold. At worst, they will continue to hound you.
That's so true.
Contrary to what you may have heard in the past, don't ever reply asking to be removed from their list. That's just letting them know your email address is valid, making it even more valuable for them.
This is one of the reasons why you're seeing email programs blocking images unless you allow it. Even though it's email, those graphics are coming from a server. When you view the images in your email, the request for that image goes out to whatever server it's hosted at. That image request can contain information in the url that they can use to identify that the message sent to that particular email address has been viewed, therefore being legit. It's something that's commonly used by even legitimate persons, particularly marketing people, to track whether or not emails have been read or not.
Sadly it's come down to the point where you almost have to treat every email as suspect. This isn't limited to eBay, PayPal, Amazon, but extends to financial institutions, social & community sites, shopping sites, etc.
One of the best pieces of advice is to never click on a link in an email, but to type the address directly into your browser (or use a bookmark you know is legit). Yes, it's extreme in a way, but when it comes to any site involving personal information it's best to be on the safe side. Whenever you receive an email regarding your account on any site, as convenient as it might be, don't click on the link but visit the site directly. It's different if you initiated the email such as requesting information, resetting your password and other things.
alco_fan wrote:This has been around for a long time, and you'll receive it whether you have ever had an ebay or Paypal account or not. Phishers just indiscriminantly SPAM out millions of these.As with all such phishing scams, one should do what PayPal recommends on their website and forward the entire email, with headers, to spoof@paypal.com
This has been around for a long time, and you'll receive it whether you have ever had an ebay or Paypal account or not. Phishers just indiscriminantly SPAM out millions of these.
As with all such phishing scams, one should do what PayPal recommends on their website and forward the entire email, with headers, to spoof@paypal.com
Yeah I got some about a year ago, but I have never had an ebay or Paypal acct. - I just mark them as junk and Thunderbird filters out that site in the future.
Enjoy
Paul
Here is what you do to report them...
For ebay scams foward the message to spoof@ebay.com
For Paypal, foward the message to spoof@paypal.com
Then delete the messages.
Do not click on any of the hyperlinks, or you will be redirected to the phony site.
They are called phishing scams. A lot of times folks that don't even have Pay Pal or eBay accounts will recieve these e-mails. The scammers send them out in the hopes that the recipient has an account and believes they are for real. They have been around for awhile. I got one a couple of years ago stating that my Pay Pal account had been suspended, and a link was provided that looked like an actual Pay Pal link. The address in the address bar wasn't even a Pay Pal address. What really tipped me off is that I had just completed a transaction using Pay Pal literally moments before I read the e-mail.
BTW, thanks for the heads up. There are still a lot of folks not aware of these scams.
I've had that happen to me once or twice too. The important thing is dont click on anything in the e-mail and don't reply to the message. Contact PayPal through an email address that you know to be valid and talk to them about it.
Another version of this scam I've had is where you get an email from ebay that looks just like a real ebay email from a person who had won my auction saying he had sent the money now where is his "stuff". The only thing was that I didn't have anything up for auction on ebay, nor had I for over a year.
-George
"And the sons of Pullman porters and the sons of engineers ride their father's magic carpet made of steel..."
-Dan
Builder of Bowser steam! Railimages Site
Yeah,thats how it usually starts with a click here for this or that and thats when they get ya..Some of these scammers don't give up easily.I closed my e bay account in May of this year and I still get letters from "e-bay" advising me to update my account or it will be closed..The header and form looks EXACTLY like E-bays!
Thanks for the heads up even thoughI have never used Pay Pal.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
Just a heads up to everyone....this was a new one for me, a different look to it, thought I would try to warn folks about it.
Truth In Posting disclaimer: yeah I'm a brick-and-mortar store, so if you want to accuse me of pointing out an internet scam for my own self-serving interests, go ahead, but that's not my intention. I just don't like to see folks get ripped off.
In my e-mail today, I got a message from PayPal that looks EXACTLY how any other message from PayPal would look. Except that I'd not bought anything with PayPal lately.
So, curious, I opened it to find that my credit card has been charged 475.00 for a cell phone.
Only thing is, I don't have a credit card. But I do buy things with my checking account through the PayPal e-check deal. I sure don't have 475.00 in the bank so I was concerned about bounced checks. The bank reported, so far, that nothing of that nature had appeared in my account.
What made it more odd than most of these scams, is at the bottom of the message was a space (not normally there) which said "If you dispute this transaction, click here to resolve." Now I'm guessing that's where the scam would begin.
This was a seller in Maine. I don't know how to report it to PayPal. Just thought I would warn folks. I see several scams, but this one looked quite a bit different than the others. Little more scary than normal.