Fake Paypal email going around!

[Daemonfly]

If you get a "Verify your identity" email from Paypal, DO NOT click the link & enter all your information.

Dear paypal user, We would like to inform you that we are upgrading our server to install a better protection software. So please click here and fill in the registration form again to renew your account. Paypal Administration.

I checked the link & it looks like they actually use paypal.com's own addy with a buffer overflow condition to make it point to a new address, which contains a page wanting you to fill in all your information. New "page" is actually on some porno site. To the average user, it would "look" like a perfectly fine email.

If you go directly to paypal manually, theres nothing about an upgrade whatsoever. I've forwarded it to Paypal already to have them take action.

[Dragonmaster Zoc]

Thanks for the heads up. I'm still waiting for my PayPal account to verify with my bank account; I'm hoping there aren't too many steps left.

[Felan]

I got this with my auto eBay email bill thingy, thought it might be useful to post.

Some community members have reported receiving deceptive emails claiming to come from eBay, PayPal, or other popular Web sites. The people who send these emails (also known as "spoof" or "phishing" emails) hope that unsuspecting recipients will reply or click on a link contained in the email and then provide sensitive personal information.

You can take a few simple steps to protect your account and prevent senders of deceptive emails from doing harm:
* If you need to update your personal or financial information on eBay, type the eBay Web address into your browser or use a bookmarked link.
* Use My eBay or the Site Map to find pages on eBay, rather than relying on links from emails.
* Report suspicious email immediately by forwarding it to spoof@ebay.com.
eBay's Help system provides detailed information about spoof emails, identity theft, and what to do if your eBay account has been compromised.

[Fixer]

I got this a while back and just thought it a fluke. Didn't realize it was widespread. :/ Since I have never used PayPal I knew it was bullshit and just deleted it.

[Phoenix Talon]

Well, this put a damper On some things. Namely the willingness of my parents to use their Credit card online to buy me stuff.... -_-

[JonnWood]

Does anyone know how to get a paypal account from the Bahamas? i live here, and it's not listed.

[elroy]

They're unwilling to use their CC because there simply are scam artists on the internet ? Then why are they willing to use it in stores irl ? There are scam artists irl too. If they just acknowledge the fact there are people who are trying to scam you out of money everywhere, and make sure they recognize it, there should be no problem..

[Daemonfly]

This specific "scam" uses a "feature" in IE that allows the http://www.paypal.com address to be completely spoofed, so it looks as if you're actually on Paypal's page. I know this would catch a lot of people who were someone new to the net. Don't beleive this works in Opera or Mozilla.

if you have to use IE, the MyIE2 plugin will supposedly fix the spoofing issue, and give you great options like tabbed browsing, etc.. http://www.myie2.com/html_en/home.htm

[Teranfirbt]

Bleh, why keep putting up with IE's bullshit... just get opera >_>

[Phantom Snowcat]

I stopped using paypal because we got scammed out of FOUR THOUSAND FUCKING DOLLARS


needless to say our insurance company was nice enough to help us out, but no more paypal here.

[elroy]

/me points to sig..

[Blaze]

I just use the Avant plugin. I believe it helps stop the spoofing issue as well as tabbed browsing, popup block, the general stuff.

[Deacon]

I can't stand all those dumbass skins/expasion-packs for IE. If I want to use something in which I can disable cookies and javascript and such, I use Firebird. If I want to use something that will work with everything and never have a problem with plugins and such, I use IE. I works for my everyday browsing better than Firebird does, mainly because I'm used to and prefer the way IE works compared to Firebird. Little shortcuts and keystrokes, etc.

By the way, I highly recommend that you all use Thunderbird ( http://www.mozilla.org/projects/thunderbird/ ) as a replacement for Outlook Express and other mail clients.

[elroy]

I know Firbird is better than IE cause of.. many reasons. But what's better about thunderbird ? My isp filters out my spam so.. that's not gonna win me over. Anything else ?

[TopCat]

If thunderbird is anything like the packaged email client for Mozzy (why the hell do you want to miss out on such an excellent suite, eh?) then I'm not down.

Other Notes: theres a easy way to read emails without reading them in OutLook express, simply right click the email, go to properties, click the second tab at the top (message header), and theres a button at the bottom that says Message Source. You can read the email with all the html there but not working, and everything, deciding if you really want to open the email or not. Also, there will be the link, to something like http://www.paypal.com%01%00@pornsite.com/paypalscam/ which will pretty much show its a dead giveaway. Btw, the inq reports that this does effect mozzy, but it shows a little [] Block after the first part of the url. the %01%00 in conjunction make this block, which renders the rest of the line invisible in IE.

BAM!