New PayPal Fraud Email!!!!

[spy88]

Hey, everyone! While doing my thing on my computer this afternoon, I noticed an email had come in. I opened it only to find that I had supposedly sent over $270 via my PP acct. to a seller for an item I would not have ever purchased! I immediately exited the email, logged into my PP acct and found it intact and all funds in place, and changed my password just in case..

 

I logged in to eBay, did a search for the item by the number given in the email only to be directed to an auction that had closed Sept. 1 and was not the same item as described. I then did a search for the seller I was supposed to have sent the money to---and guess what, I got the same page as the auction item! The seller of the item and the supposed seller in my email were not the same.

 

I then reported the email with copy to PP but as soon as I hit "send" or "next" or whatever was there, I was told I had timed out and had to log back in. So don't know if they received it or not.

 

This is a new form of eBay/PP fraud for me! I always send any suspicious emails from eBay to spoof but this is the first one from PP saying I had made a buy and transferred funds when I hadn't.

 

I suggest if you get something like this, do not click on any of the links!!!

There were 5 links in it---one to the sellers email address, one to the item by name not auction number, one to PP customer service, one to log in to my acct., and another to receive email notifications in plain text.

 

You can check it out for yourself. The auction number for a set of MYST games (this is what I was supposed to have bought) is 8126628705 but is for something entirely different and the seller id is "phonebuyer". Inputing either will take you to the same auction page.

[Wihlborg]

Hi David,

 

I received this same e-mail about a month ago. Like you, I logged into my PayPal account directly to check it and found that there had been no activity. At that point I just forwarded it to spoof@paypal.com. I never heard anything back from PayPal about it.

 

John

[spy88]

Hey John,

 

Is spoof@ebay.com the same as spoof@paypal.com? If so, I didn't know PP had the spoof option. I'll send the email to them via the spoof just in case and thanks for the info!

[Wihlborg]

David,

 

Yes, PayPal has its own spoof@ paypal.com address to send bogus e-mails to.

 

John

[Here]

I hope someone can answer this. Everyone I know that uses eBay and Paypal, eventually starts getting these spoof emails. I hadn't bought anything or paid for anything eBay/Paypal since June. I got a spoof email this week saying the auction for the item I was bidding on had been "canceled* and closed early." So, all of us must be on some sort of Known Users list of eBay/Paypal. How did these people get our emails between us and eBay/Paypal? Where are they tapping in to get them? This next question I would really like to know. Has anyone who is active on the internet, that has never even gone to eBay/Paypal ever received a spoof eBay or Paypal message? I've even received a couple spoof emails from one of my credit cards. And it just so happened to be the one I had in Paypal at the time. What the hell is going on here?

 

*cancelled is misspellled. One last thing. My Postini has even quaranteend spoof eBay emails that have keystroke viruses in them

 

 

Jerry

[TomB]

I doubt highly that there is a grand list that someone has obtained. I have five email accounts and only one of them has ever been listed on ebay, however, I get these spam emails all the time on all five accounts. It is really very easy to send out millions of generic spam emails and all you need is a tiny fraction of a percent to be careless enough to pan out in order to make money.

[spy88]

I took it upon myself to notify the auction seller for the real item as advertised and, as I expected, she had already had hundreds of emails concerning the same fraud

email. With her permission, I post her reply.

 

Good evening & thank you very much for notifying me regarding this matter. Unfortunately I've received hundreds of emails from other ebayers since Friday, Sept, 3rd notifying me that they too have received a PayPal payment notice for this same auction # for $270.00 from "Phonebuyer", "stevendom33" or "hamptonanthony". This auction ended with no bids but the counter now registers close to 28,000 hits so this guy has been real busy sending out these emails to a lot more people than the few hundred who have notified me about it. I called PayPal the following Saturday morning & again on Sept. 14th (they say they're investigating it & that's about all the help they offer) and they said this IS just a spoof email and there is really nothing I can do about it other than email anyone who notifies me about it and reassure them I didn't charge their account for this item....the girl at PayPal said to just have everyone who receives these emails check their PayPal account to verify there was no charge withdrawn from their account and NOT to respond or give any personal information to this person as this is just an attempt to harvest account information.

 

Thanks again for taking the time to notify me...have a great weekend!

Paula *88pitstop*

[Here]

Why is it always eBay and Paypal. Why don't I ever get them from YaHoo and Pay Direct. Something is fishy here. I put some of these questions I have up across the street. One response said the thieves were getting our email addresses from seller's virus infected computers. Who knows.

 

 

Jerry

[Here]

Just got one wanting me to update my eBay billing records. Yeah, right. Well, I've never done any work for eBay and that's the only billing department eBay has(I think) to pay their bills. Sent it on to spoof.

 

 

Jerry

[spy88]

Here is another one I just got! It's a spoof too and that's where it went.

 

You have added laptopseller@yahoo.com as a new email address for your

PayPal account.

 

If you did not authorize this change or if you need assistance with

your account, please contact PayPal customer service at:

 

 

https://www.paypal.com/row/wf/f=ap_email

 

 

Thank you for using PayPal!

The PayPal Team

 

 

Please do not reply to this e-mail. Mail sent to this address cannot be

answered. For assistance, log in to your PayPal account and choose the

"Help" link in the header of any page.

 

----------------------------------------------------------------

PROTECT YOUR PASSWORD

 

NEVER give your password to anyone and ONLY log in at

https://www.paypal.com/. Protect yourself against fraudulent websites

by opening a new web browser (e.g. Internet Explorer or Netscape) and typing

in the PayPal URL every time you log in to your account.

[Wihlborg]

David,

 

I got the first one that you started this thread about again today!

 

John

[Leothelion]

I receive a lot of email from paypal and ebay, 90% of the time I don't even open them! You guys are making me wonder what's in these emails! I don't even open the ones that have the usual info about "you have won', the "aw-confirm" and so on type of notices. I guess I should look more closely at these emails....or should I?

 

Leo

[spy88]

John, I'm really surprised by the number of times these people continue to attempt to trick the same people over and over again. You'd think they'd get smart and eliminate the ones who don't fall for it from their mailing lists. Must be more work then it's worth or they just don't care!

 

Leo, don't let your curiosity get the better of you! You're better off just to keep on doing what you're doing with them (delete/send to spoof). Course, there are legitimate emails from eBay, i.e. "bid confirmed", "outbid notice", etc. And those from PP saying "you've just sent money to so-and-so". Just about all the others will be spoof and really should be forwarded there. It probably doesn't do any good, but at least it gives you the feeling of doing the right thing.

 

But now that I think about it, these "normal" emails from eBay/PP may also start showing up as spoofs too. It's really getting out of hand and likely to get worse before it gets better (like that's gonna happen)!

[Bruceswar]

I was just hit with the one about updating your account Information on Ebay... They even has masked the email address to use the aw-comfirn@ebay.com

Well they did not get me... but I could see how so many people can be taken

[melmcbee]

David, I just got the one that says an email address has been added ...laptopseller@yahoo.com. I received it at both of my email addresses that are listed on Paypal. Sent it to spoof@paypal.com. Where are they getting our email addresses from?

[NoseyNeighbor-migration]

My oh my -- Look what I have found on the WWW! I am not a coin collector but my husband has billions of the annoying things. I like movie memorabilia - Must be in mint condition and signed... (Authenticated of course.) Now about the PayPal spoof deal -- Got one yesterday and tried to do something then but it was too late to call their corporate office to ask a real person what's the haps... Turns out that some bone head (hope that is acceptable here on this highbrow site...) Got through to a swell gal who says that they are doing nothing BUT fielding these calls from us PayPal users and that (a) we do not have to change our passwords - (b) just do not answer the emails. So, if any of you have a signed copy of Silence of the Lambs, first edition in excellent condition - Let me know --

[Hoot]

What is the cheesiest song on your iPod?

 

What if we don't have iPods? Coin collectors aren't known for their techno-innovativeness. Most of us are old, walk with canes, never see movies, clean in our free time and beat our grandchildren once a week to remind them of their place in the world.

 

It'd be fun to have an antagonist on the board, so stick around NoseyNeighbor! And get your husband over here too.

 

Hoot

[gmarguli]

Just send the spoof emails to spoof@paypal.com and be done with it. Silence of the Lambs was a great movie, but Hannibal lacked. It's kind of cloudy here, but not raining. It rained yesterday. I'm hungry. I think I will go to lunch early.

[JamminJ]

It rained yesterday. I'm hungry. I think I will go to lunch early.

 

Definitely go with the chicken. After a cold and rainy day (by California standards) a hot meal is what you need.

 

-JamminJ

[jom]

After a cold and rainy day (by California standards) a hot meal is what you need.

 

But wait! Aren't Quizos sandwiches "Mmmm...tasty"?

 

jom