Warning: PayPal email scam

[PaulKidd]

This week I have received 2 email posts from "service@paypaI.com".

The message is that your account needs to be verified via the enclosed link.
DON'T DO IT! It's a scam, phishing for your personal information.

Delete the email and open your account in the normal way. Confirm that there
is no real problem...which there won't be.

[Steel]

Thank you. I have also got a similar email from, what looks like, a credit card that I have. I called the company right away a confirmed it was a scam.

[RayClem]

If you are reading email in a browser, most will show the URL behind any link included in the email. These phishing scams often have you accessing a web site in some strange country. The OP's advice is sound.

[DoughBoy68]

I have followed this rule of thumb for years when dealing with emails and advised others accordingly;

If I don't recognize the sender it gets deleted....period!

[alex1921]

Never ever open any links for anything. Phishing. They will come from banks, from apple, PayPal, whatever you can imagine.
For fun just check where is the email coming from. It's always some weird long email address.

[ScoutHikerDad]

Thanks for the PSA, Paul-As someone whose entire bank account was cleaned out to the tune of 6k last spring (we got it all back, but it took weeks of frustrating forms, phone calls, and meetings), I'd like to hope there is a nice toasty corner of hell reserved for scam artists and con-men in any form. Not everyone observes the spirit of the holidays, sadly.

[CrescentCityRazors]

Let me add that it is possible to spoof an email sender address. Even if you DO recognize the seller, verify via paypal or bank's secure website (https://...)

I once got a fake email from paypal saying I had been paid, so ship the item already. Luckily I was already refusing to ship because the buyer wanted it shipped to a different address than the registered one, and it was outside the US and I specifically said no shipping outside CONUS on the auction listing. That made me cool my jets long enough to notice that the payment was not actually posted to my paypal account. The buyer thoughtfully overpaid by $100 for the postage difference between New Jersey and some village in Nigeria. LOL! Except that the overpayment, even the bid amount, was never actually paid. The fake email looked quite real, too. Fakery, spoofing, social engineering, all can be very effective ways to fool you in the hands of a master conman. They do that for a living. Their skill levels can be quite high. We deal with the really clever ones only rarely and so out skill sets can be pushed to the limit, and we have to be very careful. I totally ignore the "You got money" emails now. I look at my paypal account by logging in to the site.