Beware of the PayPal Spoofs!

Michigan Badger · Jan 24, 2009

I have people PM me at my ebay account wanting to know if I accept anything other than PayPal. The reason being they dropped PayPal due to so many people trying to gain access to their account. What these people are doing is believing those bogus spoof scammer emails sent out by crooks in Nigeria, England, etc. These are spoof emails and they hope you'll be dumb enough to give them your PayPal password and account ID (lots of people do this and lose everything). If there ever is a problem, log into your PayPal account the way you normally do (look for the secure https address) and see if anything is really going on. On an average day I get at least 2 emails telling me what you see in the picture I've attached. This one just came in about 5 minutes ago. Take care. MB

stoney56 · Jan 24, 2009

Yep, get those every once in a great while. I keep my PayPal acct. at 0 bal and have a special acct at the bank that I can transfer $$ in and out of that PayPal accepts. It also stays practically empty, maybe $4-5 in it to keep it active.

Michigan Badger · Jan 24, 2009

stoney56 said:
Yep, get those every once in a great while. I keep my PayPal acct. at 0 bal and have a special acct at the bank that I can transfer $$ in and out of that PayPal accepts. It also stays practically empty, maybe $4-5 in it to keep it active.

Smart moves!

Michigan Badger · Jan 24, 2009

just-geese said:
Good advice Badger with a couple notes...Paypal never starts a e-mail by saying Dear Valued Paypal Member, they always use your full name the way it's listed on your account. Second any link with paypal will be HTTPS showing a secure web site
Don

Yes, good points :thumbsup:

mlayers · Jan 24, 2009

I never open any mail from paypal or ebay thur my emails. I go the their site and see if I have any mail from them or someone that is asking for information on my items. Because if you open a email from someone and they have a link for you to go to. They got your information and you can be wipe out. So be safe only open mail from their site....Matt

stoney56 · Jan 24, 2009

mlayers said:
I never open any mail from paypal or ebay thur my emails. I go the their site and see if I have any mail from them or someone that is asking for information on my items. Because if you open a email from someone and they have a link for you to go to. They got your information and you can be wipe out. So be safe only open mail from their site....Matt

Me too. Excellent point!! :thumbsup:

Michigan Badger · Jan 24, 2009

People really are suckers for these.

Not long ago someone in a high position with a very important job told me it took him a long time and a great deal of frustration to straighten out a mess with PayPal due to his falling for one of these email spoofs.

As he told me the story I thought to myself...how in the heck could you fall for that?!

I started this thread mainly to help inform people that really if they're careful and follow the rules Paypal is good and safe. In fact, it is very good for buyers. Now that something coming from me because I'm mostly a seller!

Anytime you buy using Paypal you're 100% protected IF YOU FOLLOW THE RULES. Just recently they got me my money back on a crooked deal. Try to get your money back if you use a money order or cash.

MB

Peerless67 · Jan 24, 2009

"sent out by crooks in Nigeria, England, etc."

Badger, I sometimes get these from people in the States to.

:coffee2:

Gary

BIG61AL · Jan 24, 2009

I get those all the time...sometimes I get a fake page where I am listed as the seller of a plasma TV or digital camera......I reply with a descriptive expletive and a rude picture. I despise petty criminals.

SHERMANVILLE ILLINOIS · Jan 24, 2009

Never get any of the above; when your really broke
the news gets out fast. :wink:

Michigan Badger · Jan 24, 2009

Peerless67 said:
"sent out by crooks in Nigeria, England, etc."

Badger, I sometimes get these from people in the States to.

Gary

Yes, you're right. That's the etc. part.

Michigan Badger · Jan 24, 2009

SHERMANVILLE ILLINOIS said:
Never get any of the above; when your really broke
the news gets out fast.

and the rest of us ain't far behind ya Sherm :P

Michigan Badger · Jan 24, 2009

BIG61AL said:
I get those all the time...sometimes I get a fake page where I am listed as the seller of a plasma TV or digital camera......I reply with a descriptive expletive and a rude picture. I despise petty criminals.

I agree.

I was going to look into having our tech man make a program that would send 10,000 replies to these jerks for every scam email they send us but I learned that these scammers have it set up to only receive those password forms they send in those emails.

If we sent out a bunch of nasty emails we'd just get them back to plug up our system.

They're a bunch of dirty birds. And they probably make millions each year doing this.

MB

SHERMANVILLE ILLINOIS · Jan 24, 2009

Michigan Badger said:
SHERMANVILLE ILLINOIS said:

Never get any of the above; when your really broke
the news gets out fast.

Click to expand...

Come on down...........................

and the rest of us ain't far behind ya Sherm :P

smurf-42 · Jan 24, 2009

I have gotten these emails too. One of the things I look at when I open the email is the "To" line. If it has my email addy then I know it is bogus, if it has my name then I know it is really from PayPal. If you get a bogus email you can forward the email to Spoof@paypal.com for PayPal to look into the email.

Sue

Michigan Badger · Jan 24, 2009

smurf-42 said:
I have gotten these emails too. One of the things I look at when I open the email is the "To" line. If it has my email addy then I know it is bogus, if it has my name then I know it is really from PayPal. If you get a bogus email you can forward the email to Spoof@paypal.com for PayPal to look into the email.

Sue

Ya, good points Sue.